LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

sheif.._e.vm> 

I 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 



The 
Sabbath Transferred 

/ 
BY 

Rev. JOHNS D. PARKER, Ph.D. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

Rev. F. N. PELOUBET, D.D. 

Author of 
" Notes on International Lessons," 



♦ 



East Orange, New Jersey 
Johns D. Parker & Company 



«* 



« V 



i 900 



fWO COPIES BECE1VBD. 

Library of C»wg r *$* \ ^ 

M' » 

*«(frt.f, r of Copyright* 



56832 



Copyright, 1900, by Johns D. Parker. 



SECOND COPY, 

The Brandt Press, Trenton, N.J. 






Mvij<r6r]TL rrjv rjfJLepav rS>v crafifidTcov 
aytdt.eiv avTtjv. — Fourth Commandment in 
the Septuagint. 



'Oxjje Se crafUfiaTcov, rf} emc^cacrfcovcny eis 
/Jiiav aafifidTcov, rj\6e Mapta rj MaySaXrjvr), 
kolI rj dXXrj Mapia Oecjpfjcrai rov rdfyov. — 
Mat. 28: I. 



To ordfifioLTOv Sia top dvdpcoTrov iyeverOy 
ovx o dvdpcoTTos Std to crd/3f3aTov. — Mark 
2 : 27. 

'JLyevofJLTjp iv ILvev/juaTi iv Trj Kvpicucf} 
rjfiepa. — Rev. 1 : 10. 



Ejus observationem mos Christianus ad 
diem dominicam comptentius transtulit. — 
Alcuin. 



DEDICATION 



TO ALL STUDENTS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 

WHO REJOICE IN THE LIGHT OF THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH, 

THAT IN FULLNESS OF TIME 

WILL SHINE OVER THE WHOLE WORLD 

TO ENLIGHTEN EVERY HOME AND GLADDEN EVERY HEART, 

THIS MONOGRAPH 

IS PRAYERFULLY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Authorities in the Original Greek and Latin, . . 5 

Dedication, 7 

Introduction, ........ 1 1 

Preface, * 17 

Chapter I. : The Sabbath a Movable Institution, . 21 

Chapter II. : Evidence from the New Testament of the 

Transfer of the Sabbath, . . . . 37 

Chapter III. : Prophecies Foreshadowing the Transfer of 

the Sabbath, 60 

Chapter IV. : Practice of Early Christians, ... 76 

Chapter V. : The Transferred or Christian Sabbath, . 101 

Index and Analysis, ....... 147 



INTRODUCTION 

XJT AVING listened with no small interest 
to the reading of this little book by 
Chaplain Parker, I heartily concur in the 
main conclusions, and regard them as a 
valuable contribution toward the final set- 
tlement of the Sabbath question. 

Many roads converge upon the end he 
is seeking. By many arguments he up- 
holds his conclusions. Some of these argu- 
ments I have not had time to examine 
thoroughly, and some of the ways I have 
not traveled before ; so that I can neither 
commend nor reject them. But there are 
arguments enough to establish his position, 
and ways enough that are good highways 
to the Sabbath City he wishes to build. 

For two reasons the question is of no 
ii 



INTRODUCTION 

little importance. For some consciences 
are troubled lest keeping Sunday should 
not be obedience to the Fourth Command- 
ment ; while others by separating the 
Christian Sabbath from the one estab- 
lished by Law from Sinai, feel a lessened 
obligation, and a diminished force of duty 
and privilege, as to keeping any Sabbath. 
The true settlement of the question is 
that established in this volume. The 
command in the Decalogue is to keep the 
Sabbath, the seventh day. But there is 
no established starting point from which 
to count. It would not be possible to 
have the same starting point for all the 
world, nor to be sure that we are now 
counting our seventh day from the same 
day that the earliest men employed. Our 
Sunday is as really a seventh day, as is 
the Jewish Saturday. And whosoever 
hallows the Sunday, hallows the seventh 

12 



INTRODUCTION 

day and keeps the commandment. The 
only difference is the day from which we 
count. For the Sabbath, the seventh day 
is an Institution ; something as Easter is 
an institution. We keep Easter, whether 
the day on which it falls be in April, or in 
March, be on the first or the twentieth 
day of the month. 

The main thing is to guard the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath. Let us keep one day 
in seven holy. We cannot do this unless 
the great majority keep the same day. A 
learned man who was naturally left-handed, 
and who had made a study of that subject, 
said to me that while some people were 
born left-handed, and some right-handed, 
the great majority could be either with 
equal ease. But as there were more right- 
handed people born than left-handed, every- 
thing was made to suit them, so that even 

left-handed people must use their right 

J 3 



INTRODUCTION 

hands most of the time, or suffer great 

inconvenience. So it is with the Sabbath, 

each one cannot select his own seventh 

day, for his own personal convenience, but 

the whole community must join in keeping 

the Sabbath on the same seventh day, to 

gain its best effects. But the point from 

which we count is not laid down in the 

commandment. 

There is need of emphasizing the vital 

importance of the Sabbath to man, and 

impressing its permanent obligation. It 

does not seem possible that God could 

abrogate the Fourth Commandment while 

he was still writing it on the very nature 

of man. The Sabbath law is like a wall 

around a garden: not for its own sake, but 

to preserve the flowers and fruits within 

the enclosure. Whosoever says that we 

need the fruits, but care nothing for the 

wall, will find that the fruits cannot be pro- 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

tected and enjoyed without the wall, till 
all that would ruin them are changed into 
friends. But the Christian emphasis lies 
on the fruits and flowers, while the old 
Jewish tradition emphasized the wall. A 
set of hard, definite rules binding the con- 
duct, instead of great principles planted 
in the heart, always tends to evil, to incon- 
sistency and hypocrisy, and smothers the 
true life under a load of mere outward 
forms, as King Henry, angry with his 
courtiers, locked them into the dining- 
room and smothered them with roses and 
flowers, so that 

"E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me." 

But if the value of the Sabbath is clearly 
felt, and its blessing to the individual and 
to the Nation is recognized as the means 
of training and inspiring the soul, cultiva- 
ting the moral nature, and uplifting the 



INTRODUCTION 

whole being to a higher atmosphere of 
living, then the outward rules can be main- 
tained so far as to preserve the Sabbath 
blessings. 

" ' Tis more our soul's sweet zeal than body's rest, 
That makes this day 'of all the week the best.' " 

F. N. PELOUBET. 



16 



PREFACE 

'THiE MONOGRAPH now presented 
to the Christian world came into be- 
ing as the result of my studies in New 
Testament interpretation. In training Nor- 
mal Teachers' Classes for Sunday-school 
work, I discovered some years ago, that 
the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sab- 
bath are identical in substance, the Sabbath, 
as an Institution, having been transferred 
from Saturday to Sunday on the morning 
of the Resurrection. This surprising dis- 
covery gave me a thrill of pleasure, as I 
could never understand before it was made 
why the Fourth Commandment, as inter- 
preted by the Jews, is not binding upon 
Christians. I felt that so important a fact, 

involving a new rendering of some pas- 
2 17 



PREFACE 



sages of Scripture, required thoughtful 
study and careful verification before any 
public announcement should be made to 
the Christian world. Repeatedly examin- 
ing all the passages of Scripture touching 
this matter, and consulting all accessible 
authorities on this subject, I entered into a 
correspondence with many who make New 
Testament interpretation a life-work. The 
subject has thus grown upon my hands and 
filled my heart for about ten years, until I 
believe the following monograph, com- 
pressed into the briefest space possible 
consistent with perspicuity, will be accept- 
able to students of the Sacred Scriptures, 
especially to Sunday-school teachers. 

To the Christian who receives this im- 
portant fact of the transfer of the Sabbath 
with its full significance, the Holy Day 
breaks over the world with a new light, as 

the sacred season for rest and worship set 

18 



PREFACE 

apart by Jehovah, when the heavens and 
earth were finished, and "the morning 
stars sang together, and all the sons of 
God shouted for joy," and also the joyful 
time when the Lord of life triumphed over 
death, and came forth from the sepulcher 
as a Mighty Conqueror. 

In the increased radiance of the Sabbath 
transferred, we can utter the words of the 
Great Prophet when he said: "The light 
of the morn shall be as the light of the 
sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven- 
fold, as the light of seven days." 

With the prayer that true Christians may 

soon "see eye to eye" in the observance 

of the Sabbath day, this monograph is cast 

upon the troubled waters. 

j. d. p. 

East Orange, New Jersey. 



x 9 



THE 
SABBATH TRANSFERRED 



CHAPTER I 

THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

/^OD, who inhabits eternity, and fills all 
space with his presence, may be wor- 
shiped at all times, and in every place. 
But finite man, under the limitations of his 
earthly life, needs times of rest to recuper- 
ate his powers, and sacred seasons for 
worship and spiritual refreshment. The 
Sacred Scriptures recognize these limita- 
tions and spiritual needs of human nature, 
and discriminate between holy time used 
for religious purposes and secular time, 

21 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

making them separate and distinct things. 
One-seventh of the time composed of re- 
curring segments called days, measured 
naturally by the revolution of the earth on 
its axis, was set apart for rest and worship. 
In seven consecutive revolutions of the 
earth on its axis, the last revolution, or 
day, coincided analogically w r ith this time 
of rest and worship because God rested 
on the seventh period of creation from all 
the work which he had made. It may en- 
able the mind to distinguish between holy 
and secular time by remembering that the 
seventh day, following the first hexahem- 
eron, existed as secular time for ages, even 
from the time the earth began to revolve 
on its axis until the end of creation, before 
the Sabbath was instituted. This seventh 
segment of time for rest and worship was 
placed on a secular day, or revolution of 
the earth, to commemorate the creation of 

22 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

the world. If man should be removed 
from the earth the Sabbath would cease to 
be, as it was made for man, but the seventh 
day would continue to exist as long as the 
earth revolved on its axis as a member of 
the solar system. If the Sabbath can be 
placed on and taken off from a secular day 
without disturbing it as an element of time, 
the same authority could transfer \t from 
one secular day to another to commemo- 
rate another and greater event, the New 
Creation. 

The Sabbath, one-seventh of the time, 
is a Divine Institution, and forms a part 
of the Moral Law, which was written on 
tables of stone to indicate its perpetuity. 
But the secular day, on which the Sabbath 
was observed, is not a part of the Moral 
Law, for it existed for ages before the 
Moral Law was promulgated, and it does 

not differ in character from any other sec- 

2 3 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

ular day. The Sabbath, and the seventh 
day on which it was observed, differ from 
each other in their origin, nature and rela- 
tion to created things. The Sabbath, 
although anticipated and foreshadowed in 
the very constitution of things, came form- 
ally as an Institution by divine appoint- 
ment, for purposes of rest, and commemo- 
ration. It possesses moral characteristics, 
and commemorates important events. It 
differs essentially from the seventh day 
which like all other secular days is simply 
a natural division of time measured by the 
revolution of the earth on its axis. Secu- 
lar days have been in existence from the 
time the earth began to revolve on its axis, 
the month has existed from the time the 
moon began to revolve around the earth 
in its orbit, and the week suggested prob- 
ably by the phases of the moon, has been 

employed from time immemorial. A week 

24 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

may be divided, as it would naturally have 
been before the creation was finished, into 
seven equal segments each one purely 
secular measured by a revolution of the 
earth on its axis. A week may also be 
divided in thought, so that one-seventh of 
it may be considered holy time. These 
two weeks may be superimposed, so that 
the holy time corresponds with the seventh 
day, as it was under the Jewish economy. 
This segment of holy time may also be 
transferred, or slipped forward a day, as it 
was at the Resurrection, so that the Sab- 
bath coincides with the first day of the 
week, as it is under the Christian dispensa- 
tion. By the application of heat, oxygen 
and hydrogen in chemical combination may 
be made to assume the forms of a solid, 
liquid, or gas, but the substances still re- 
main in existence under all the modifica- 
tions. One-seventh of the time called 

25 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

Sabbath, set apart for rest and worship, 
as a Divine Institution, and an integral 
part of the Moral Law, may be transferred 
from one revolution of the earth to 
another, and may receive modifications, as 
to the manner of its observance under the 
different covenants, but it cannot be abol- 
ished except by divine authority any more 
than oxygen and hydrogen combined in 
water can be annihilated by the action of 
heat. If the Sabbath should cease to 
exist for one moment of time, the Fourth 
Commandment would lose its authority 
and need to be reenacted by its Author, 
as at Mount Sinai, and the whole Deca- 
logue on similar grounds might be abol- 
ished, but both tables of the law were 
gathered up by Christ in two command- 
ments and reinforced. In the Decalogue, 
God says he rested on the seventh day, 

wherefore he blessed the Sabbath day and 

26 



CARTOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATION 

OF THE TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH AT THE 

RESURRECTION 

A WEEK, BEFORE THE SABBATH WAS INSTITUTED 



Sunday 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Friday 


Saturday 



A WEEK, BETWEEN THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH AND 
THE RESURRECTION 



Sunday 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Friday 


Sabbath 

or 
Saturday 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED AT THE RESURRECTION 



Saturday. 


Sabbath 

or 

Sunday 



A WEEK, UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION 



Sabbath 

or 
Sunday 


Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Friday 


Saturday 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

hallowed it, leaving the secular day on 
which it was observed free to be displaced 
by another secular day in the unfolding 
economies of grace. 

The cartographical illustrations on the 
opposite page may aid the mind in form- 
ing a conception of the transfer of the 
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday at the 
Resurrection. 

It must be obvious that the secular 
days, as names for the revolutions of the 
earth, are fixed ; but the Sabbath, as a 
civil and religious Institution, came by 
appointment, and is therefore 7novable, and 
can be transferred from one secular day 
to another. 

Time is measured by the movements of 
the members of the solar system most 
apparent to the observer. To an observer 
on the earth, the mean day may be con- 
sidered the unit of time as measured by 

27 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the revolution of the earth on its axis. 
The revolution of the moon around the 
earth measures the month, and the waxing 
and waning of the moon, in its four 
quarters, divides the month into weeks. 
The revolution of the earth around the 
sun measures the year, and the movement 
of the sun in the ecliptic determines the 
four seasons. 

The week, as related to the unit of time, 
is made up of seven segments or natural 
days. The Sabbath (o-dfifiarov) is an In- 
stitution, and does not form an integral 
part of the secular week. God blessed the 
seventh day (Gen. 2:3), and sanctified it, 
but, as far as we have any record, he never 
blessed Saturday, or any other portion of 
secular time above another portion. Bless- 
ing the seventh day was equivalent to 
blessing one day in seven, or in other words, 

blessing the Sabbath, and the Sabbath, 

28 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

under the Christian dispensation, is still 
observed one day in seven. In the Deca- 
logue (Ex. 20: 1 1), God also formally 
blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. The 
seven secular days, each measured by the 
revolution of the earth on its axis, origi- 
nally filled up the whole week, one quad- 
rant of the moon's monthly orbit, and the 
Sabbath was not needed to make the week 
complete, as the stream of secular time 
flowed on uninterruptedly without the 
Sabbath, and week after week of secular 
time filled up the year, as measured by the 
revolution of the earth about the sun. 
The names of the days, and of all the 
divisions of time, are only names for the 
movements of members of the solar sys- 
tem. The measurement of time is as old 
as the movements of the solar system, 
whose origin reaches back to an antiquity 

beyond human computation. Originally 

29 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the Sabbath was not the name of any 
measurement of time, as indicated by the 
movements in the solar system. To meet 
the necessities of man, when he came into 
being, the Sabbath was instituted at the 
end of creation for rest and religious pur- 
poses, and this Institution was placed on 
Saturday, to commemorate the creation, 
which displays the attributes of its Maker. 
The Sabbath never became identical with 
Saturday, for Saturday had existed for 
ages, and two things differing in their very 
character cannot become one and the same 
thing. A sacred day, however, dedicated 
to holy purposes, can be substituted for a 
secular day. Sabbath is the true name for 
the Institution, and whenever it takes the 
place of a secular day, the name of the 
secular day displaced should become ob- 
solescent. The Sabbath came for rest, 

and to direct the thoughts of men to the 

3 o 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

Creator in gratitude and reverence for the 
display of his attributes in Creation. 

The Sabbath has naturally two limita- 
tions in regard (i) to its length, and (2) 
the frequency of its occurrence. Reason- 
ably the Sabbath would be equal to a unit 
of time, or a natural day, not a fractional 
day. The sacred day is a full unit of time, 
and as the hours move on to complete its 
cycle, man has time for rest and for holy 
activity, he receives light and heat from 
the sun, the constellations set in the deep 
heavens remind him of the power and 
wisdom of the Creator, and all the marvels 
and beauties of nature are revealed to him 
to subserve the highest purposes of his 
being. During this rounded period, which 
was chosen and dedicated to holy pur- 
poses, everything that nature possesses is 
brought before man, and grouped in one 

complex whole, to elevate and refine his 

3 1 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

thoughts, and thus all things in nature con- 
spire to develop his moral and spiritual 
life. We cannot conceive of divine wis- 
dom setting apart for religious purposes 
anything less than a unit of time to pro- 
duce the highest welfare of a religious 
being. The Book of Nature was opened 
and placed before man, and as Nature 
turned the pages slowly night and day, 
during the vicissitudes of the seasons, the 
original Sabbath as a, complete unit of 
time, gave man every evidence of God's 
attributes, as written in the earth and in 
the heavens. And when fuller Revelation 
came to man, he had ample opportunity, 
during this unit of time, repeated every 
seven days, to learn the will of God, and to 
worship in his temples. The psalmist 
says : " Day unto day uttereth speech, and 
night unto night showeth knowledge/ ' and 



3 2 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

man listens more attentively on holy than 
on secular days. 

The septenary order of the Sabbath is 
founded in the very nature of man, for 
abundant facts prove that one day in 
seven for rest and worship is better than 
any other order. 

It may help the mind to form a concep- 
tion of the Sabbath, as an Institution, 
separate and differing from the day on 
which it is observed, by reminding the 
reader that there are other time Institu- 
tions, like Thanksgiving and Easter. 
Thanksgiving is clearly an Institution, but 
it does not occur on any calendar day 
until the President by proclamation places 
it on some Thursday in November. Easter 
is also an Institution, but the calendar day 
on w T hich it is observed is not determined 
until the moon fulls on or about the twenty- 
first of March. Easter may occur as early 

3 33 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

as the twenty-second of March, or as late 
as the twenty-fifth of April. Still both of 
these Institutions exist de facto all the year 
round as really as they do after it is deter- 
mined to observe them on some calendar 
day. In a similar way the Sabbath is an 
Institution, which can be placed by divine 
authority on a secular day, or be trans- 
ferred, under divine Providence, from one 
secular day to another. 

Christ says, " Think not that I am come 
to destroy the [moral] law." If the Sab- 
bath, of the Fourth Commandment, were 
abolished, would not that destroy an es- 
sential part of the moral law? But in 
transferring the Sabbath of the Fourth 
Commandment, from Saturday to Sunday, 
Christ would preserve the Institution in 
its integrity and septenary order, and thus 
fulfill the law, enlarging the Sabbath and 



34 



THE SABBATH A MOVABLE INSTITUTION 

giving it the liberty which is characteristic 
of the Christian dispensation. 

Was it not the divine purpose that 
Judaism should develop into Christianity, 
as the bud and blossom develop into fruit ? 
for Paul says the "law was our school- 
master to bring us unto Christ" Is it not 
reasonable to suppose that the Jewish 
Sabbath, as a part of the system, would 
develop under divine Providence, into the 
Christian Sabbath, as each part partakes 
of the nature and modifications of the 
whole ? 

It is claimed that some people in heathen 
lands are so ignorant of the laws of as- 
tronomy, that when they see the sun go, 
down in the west, they think it has been 
destroyed, and when they see the sun 
rising in the east, they think it is another 
sun. So some Christians are so limited 

in their views of the Sabbath, that when 

35 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the Jewish Sabbath disappears from his- 
tory, and they behold the Christian Sab- 
bath coming into the new dispensation, 
they do not dream that these two apparent 
Sabbaths are identical, the same Institu- 
tion, that the Sabbath has simply been 
transferred from one secular day to another 
in the Providence of God. As we now 
know that the sun that sets in the west is 
the same sun that rises in the east, may 
the time soon come when all Christians 
will also know that the Jewish Sabbath and 
Christian Sabbath are the same, the Sab- 
bath of the Fourth Commandment, and 
of both dispensations, which like the sun 
will diffuse its blessed light around the 
whole world. 



3* 



CHAPTER II 

EVIDENCE FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT OF 
THE TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

/ T*HE transfer of the Sabbath from one 
secular day to another, it is believed, 
is in harmony with the unfolding of the 
economies of grace, and is sustained by a 
correct interpretation of the Sacred Script- 
ures. In Mat. 28 : i two Sabbaths are 
mentioned, one occurring on Saturday, and 
one on Sunday. The words of the apostle 
are "in the end of the [Jewish] Sabbath, 
as it began to dawn towards the first day 
of the week," or as it reads literally, to- 
wards one of the Sabbaths, (ets fiiav crafi- 
fSarcov) , that is the Christian Sabbath. The 
apostle here speaks of two Sabbaths, and 

says that the (Jewish) Sabbath had come 

37 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

to an end, and as the Christian Sabbath 
began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the 
other Mary came to the sepulcher. Dean 
Alford (in loco) says: "The words o-a/3- 
fSdrcov and ixiav aa/3/3drcov are opposed 
both being days!' The phrase "first day 
of the week," used in the English version 
in this place and in parallel passages, was 
evidently derived by the translators from 
the Modern Greek Testament, which has 
rfjs 77 pcirrrj s rj/xepa^ rrjs ey88o/xa8og. The 
opinion of the Modern Greeks is valuable, 
but their version carries only the weight 
of human opinions on disputed points. It 
is more reasonable to suppose that the 
word crafifiaTcov, as used by the apostle 
here and in all parallel passages, is a plural 
genitive limiting some form of r/fjuepa un- 
derstood, and is to be taken in its primitive 
signification, as in Col. 2:16, meaning 

Sabbaths, and not sabbatical week. The 

38 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

Greek phrase for the "first day of the 
week" would be Trpdrrrj craft ftdrov, as used 
in Mark 16:9. To translate the words 
€t? fxiav craft ftdrcov "towards the first day 
of the week " is to read into these words 
a meaning which the apostle evidently did 
not intend to express, and to lose their 
deep significance which affords us substan- 
tial proof of the transfer of the Sabbath 
at the Resurrection. The use of eh ((jllo) 
for TrpcoTos is not classical, and the words 
€ts [jLLav craft ftdrcov are not an equivalent for 
ets 7rpdrr7]v craftftdrcovy and ought not to be 
translated " towards the first day of the 
week." It is true that the Resurrection 
took place on the first day of the week, but 
it was more than this, for the apostle de- 
clares that the Resurrection was on one of 
the Sabbaths. Christ, according to the 
tradition, was crucified on Friday, lay in 

the tomb during Saturday, the day of 

39 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the (Jewish) Sabbath, and rose early on 
Sunday morning, and Matthew calls this 
time of the Resurrection one of the Sab- 
baths, (fjLLav o-afifidroov). Evidently the 
Sabbath, as an Institution, the time for 
rest and worship, was transferred at the 
Resurrection from one secular day to an- 
other, from Saturday to Sunday. As 
there can be but one Sabbath, one-seventh 
of the time, the Sabbath was hereafter 
to be observed on Sunday, as the day 
of rest and worship, and the (Jewish) 
Sabbath was spoken of subsequently his- 
torically. In the transfer of the Sabbath 
from the old economy, it would naturally 
lose its Jewish characteristics, and the day 
and the breaking of the day would be taken 
in the natural meaning of those terms un- 
der the Christian dispensation. The Sab- 
bath, under the Jewish economy, began at 

evening, for it is said "from even unto 

40 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath " 
(Lev. 23 132). As the Sabbath was insti- 
tuted at the end of creation, and was 
typical of rest, it seemed natural that it 
should begin when the activities of the day 
were over, or at even. But the Christian 
Sabbath, Luke says, began very early in 
the morning (opdpov fiaOdos), or at the 
moment of the Resurrection. In the trans- 
fer of the Sabbath from the Jewish econ- 
omy to the Christian dispensation, this 
Institution would naturally lose its local 
characteristics and limitations, and become 
cosmopolitan in character, a sacred day for 
the whole world. The Christian Sabbath 
signifies holy activity more than rest, and 
implies that with the risen Lord his people 
should arise with Him with great rejoicing, 
and go forth in His strength to save the 
world. 

In Mark 16 : 1-2, the evangelist is even 
41 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

more definite. He says : " And when the 
[Jewish] Sabbath was past, Mary Magda- 
lene, and Mary the mother of James, and 
Salome had brought sweet spices, that they 
might come and anoint him. And very 
early in the morning, the first day of the 
week," or as it reads literally, of one of the 
Sabbaths (tt?9 /xux? G-afifidrcoj/), "they came 
unto the sepulcher, at the rising of the 
sun." In these words the evangelist says 
the (Jewish) Sabbath "was past," and he 
uses the verb SiayiVo/xcu in the Second 
Aorist, signifying that the action was com- 
plete. The preposition Sia in composition 
gives intensity to the verb to show that the 
transition of time was entirely finished 
through to the very end, that the (Jewish) 
Sabbath had transpired before the Sabbath 
commenced which is mentioned in the sec- 
ond verse. In Mark 16:9 ^e evangelist 

tells us Jesus rose very early on the first 

42 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

day of the week (dz/aoras Se irpofc irpwrri 
<rafif3dTov) which gives us divine authority 
for observing the Sabbath on Sunday, the 
first day of the week. 

In Luke 23:55 seq., the evangelist gives 
a vivid picture of the Resurrection. He 
says in substance : The holy women fol- 
lowed and beheld the sepulcher, and re- 
turned and prepared spices and ointments, 
and rested on the (Jewish) Sabbath day, 
according to the commandment. Now, 
upon the first day of the week (Luke 
24 : 1), or as it reads literally, on one of the 
Sabbaths in the deep twilight, (rrj Se pna rcov 
orafi(3aT(x)v> opOpov /3a0eos), they come unto 
the sepulcher. The holy women rested on 
the (Jewish) Sabbath according to the com- 
mandment, and came to the sepulcher in 
the morning twilight, of the first day of 
the week, which the evangelist calls a Sab- 
bath. 

43 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

In John 20 : i, the apostle uses similar 
language. He says: "The first day of 
the week," or as it reads literally, on one 
of the Sabbaths (rrj Se fjua tcjp (ra/SjSdTcov), 
cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it 
was yet dark unto the sepulcher." Here 
the beloved disciple calls Sunday, the first 
day of the week, a Sabbath, and in the 
nineteenth verse he again calls the first 
day of the week a Sabbath (rfj /iia rcov 
cra/3fidTa)i>). 

Philip Schaff, with many of the best 
Christian scholars, believed that Pentecost, 
the conclusion of the Jewish harvest, and 
the beginning of the Christian harvest oc- 
curred on the Lord's Day, when the Holy 
Spirit was poured out in its fullness, and 
cloven tongues like as of fire sat upon 
each of the disciples. 

When Paul and Barnabas were at Anti- 

och in Pisidia, on their first missionary 

44 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

tour, we have the most indisputable evi- 
dence of the transfer of the Sabbath from 
Saturday to Sunday. Paul first preached 
to the Jews in their synagogue on the 
(Jewish) Sabbath, and "when the Jews 
were gone out of their synagogue [Acts 
13 142], the Gentiles besought that these 
words might be preached to them the next 
Sabbath' ' (ei9 to [xera^if crdftftarov in the 
Sabbath between), that is, the Sabbath be- 
tween the (Jewish) Sabbaths. And the 
narrative continues (Acts 13 144), and the 
next Sabbath day (tcd Se i^ofiei/(p craft ftdrco 
ax^ov on the following Sabbath just at 
hand), came almost the whole city together 
to hear the Word of God. When the 
participle €^d/A€z/o9 is used in reference to 
place it designates a place that is near or 
next, as in Mark 1 : 38 where Christ said 
"let us go into the next towns" (dycofxei/ 

els ra? e^o/xeW? KcofioTroXeis). When the 

45 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

participle is used in reference to time it 
designates the next day, as in Acts 21 : 26, 
where " Paul took the men, and the next 
day [rfj i^ofiei/y ^epa] purifying himself 
with them entered into the temple/' The 
evangelist here says the following Sabbath, 
(on which the Gentiles would naturally 
hold religious service), was between the 
(Jewish) Sabbaths, and near at hand, that 
is, on Sunday. Can language be framed 
that would prove the transfer of the Sab- 
bath from Saturday to Sunday more clearly 
and indisputably than this language of the 
inspired evangelist ? 

Surely this indubitable proof of the 
transfer of the Sabbath from Saturday to 
Sunday must satisfy every intelligent, can- 
did mind that receives the New Testament 
as the inspired Word of God, and is will- 
ing to base his theories on the facts. 

When the Lord speaks through his chosen 

46 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

apostles by his inspired word, or by exam- 
ple under the guidance of inspiration, let 
the earth keep silence. 

In Acts 20 : 7, the evangelist says : 
" Upon the first day of the week," or as it 
reads literally, on one of the Sabbaths (kv Se 
rrj 111a rcov crafifidrcov), " when the disciples 
came together to break bread, Paul preach- 
ed to them," seq. Here the disciples came 
together as a religious assembly, on Sun- 
day the first day of the week, called by the 
evangelist a Sabbath, and partook of the 
Lord's supper, and Paul preached to them. 
The Syriac translates the words "to break 
bread" to break the eucharist ; for the 
early Christians celebrated the Lord's sup- 
per every Lord's Day, which they consid- 
ered the Christian Sabbath. 

In 1 Cor. 16:2, Paul says : "on the first 
day of the week" which reads literally, 

upon one of the Sabbaths {Kara fxiav aafS- 

47 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

fidrcov), "let every one of you lay by him 
in store as God hath prospered him, that 
there be no gatherings when I come." 
This refers to the religious offerings which 
Christians made on Sunday in their relig- 
ious assemblies. This Christian assembly 
for worship and religious offerings, on the 
first day of the week, Paul says took place 
on the Sabbath, that is, the Christian Sab- 
bath. 

In Col. 2:16 the apostle says : " Let no 
man therefore judge you in meat, or in 
drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of 
the new moon, or of the Sabbath days 
{aafifiaTtov)" Christians had been freed 
from the ritualism of the Jewish econ- 
omy, and in their Christian freedom they 
should not let any one sit in judgment 
on them in respect to these things. 
Even if they preferred the Christian to the 

(Jewish) Sabbath, they were to maintain 

48 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

their Christian liberty. The apostle in- 
cludes the (Jewish) Sabbath among the 
shadows of those things to come, for the 
body is of Christ. 

In Rev. i : 10 John says : " I was in the 
spirit on the Lord's Day" (£v rfj KvpiaKy 
rjiJLepq). This was the day, on which Christ 
rose from the dead, the Christian Sabbath, 
which from this time was generally called 
the Lord's Day. 

God has left many truths to be discov- 
ered by men, and revealed truths some- 
times dawn on the world slowly. When 
Harvey discovered the circulation of the 
blood in 1 6 1 6, it is claimed that not a physi- 
cian in Great Britain over forty years of 
age ever received the new theory. For 
many centuries men believed the earth 
is flat, and that the sun revolves, as it 
appears, around the earth. Even the dis- 
ciples were very slow to believe in the 

4 49 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

Resurrection. It is not strange that men 
have been slow to believe in the transfer of 
the Sabbath. Still, this view has been held 
by many advanced thinkers, like Alcuin, 
the confidant, teacher and adviser of Char- 
lemagne, Dr. Philip Schaff and Dr. F. N. 
Peloubet, and the time is evidently not far 
distant when the transfer of the Sabbath 
will become the generally accepted view of 
the Christian Church. 

Prof. James R. Boise, the eminent Greek 
scholar, who once lived at Athens, and 
could speak Modern Greek like a native, 
affirmed that when King James' Translation 
was published, no better translation had 
ever been made from the Greek language. 
Since that time, however, critical scholars, 
such as Tischendorf, Tregelles, De Wette, 
Lachmann and others have been collating 
the MSS., and the Textus Receptus has 

been greatly improved. The New Version 

50 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

gives a more faithful rendering of the orig- 
inal. New Versions will undoubtedly be 
demanded by Christian people from age to 
age, for English words undergo a change 
of meaning in the lapse of time, and men 
see more in Revelation, as the increasing 
light of the Universal Kingdom shines 
upon it. The Bible may be compared to 
the ocean, and men have only " picked up 
a few pebbles " along the shore. The 
Bible is a great deep, but the Universe is 
larger, deeper and more profound, and the 
Infinite God, who strives to reveal himself 
to men, is greater than all the works of his 
hands. Revelation may be compared to a 
lighthouse on a stormy coast. All the 
depths and shoals of time and space are 
not revealed, but the sacred light is clear 
and steady, and whoever guides his barque 
of life by the light that shines from above 

will enter the haven of rest. 

5i 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

When there is so much darkness in this 
world, it is not strange that the Transferred 
Sabbath has not been fully understood. 
How many things such as mountains, 
forests and lakes are dimly seen in the 
twilight, that are clearly revealed when the 
sun mounts into the heavens. The Sab- 
bath, although imperfectly understood, is 
a great factor in the true development of 
mankind. Some claim that the Sabbath, 
as an Institution, is religious, some moral, 
some hygienic, and some civil. It has all 
these aspects and relations to men com- 
bined. Next to the Incarnation, and the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Bible 
and the Sabbath are the most precious 
gifts of God. There is a depth of mean- 
ing in the Sabbath, to every man, to every 
church, to every community, and to every 
nation, desiring to make true progress in 

all that pertains to the higher life. 

5 2 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

Men have been slow in comprehending 
great truths. The power of seeing is 
subjective. The Master recognized this 
when he said : " He that hath ears to hear 
let him hear." An uncultivated man will 
rush over a landscape and see almost 
nothing, while a botanist, a geologist, or a 
biologist, will pass along slowly over the 
same path, each one examining those 
things in his particular line of studies. 

Christians are just beginning to under- 
stand the Transferred Sabbath, although 
some Sabbatarians have claimed that "the 
last word has been said on the Sabbath." 
Two Sabbaths seem to appear in history, 
and men have been confused. Some claim 
that the (Jewish) Sabbath is still in force with 
all its limitations and restrictions. How 
intelligent men can hold such a view is not 
apparent. Moses (Numb. 15 : 36) caused 

a man found picking up sticks to be stoned 

53 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

to death ; but the disciples went through 
the corn-fields (Mat. 12 : i) on the Sabbath, 
and plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, 
rubbing them in their hands. And the 
Master referred the complaining Pharisees 
to the act of David eating the showbread, 
and said " the Son of man is Lord also of 
the Sabbath." Some claim that the (Jew- 
ish) Sabbath has been abolished, but they 
do not tell us when or how it was abol- 
ished. Some affirm that the Christian 
Sabbath is founded on usage. How can 
usage nullify the Fourth Commandment ? 
Some say the Christian Sabbath is founded 
on the Resurrection, but they do not tell 
what became of the (Jewish) Sabbath. If 
the Fourth Commandment is still in force, 
what relation is there between this com- 
mandment and the Christian Sabbath, and 
how was this relation established ? Some 

claim that the sacred day was " changed/' 

54 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

but they fail to tell us to what extent. 
Some say there was a " substitution/ ' but 
do not explain how it was accomplished. 
Some affirm that the (Jewish) Sabbath 
" was absorbed " by the Christian Sabbath. 
If this absorption was as perfect as when 
the juices of the lemon were sucked out 
and the peeling of the lemon swallowed, it 
might be close to the truth. Some affirm 
that the (Jewish) Sabbath was nailed to the 
cross of Christ, and refer as proof to Col. 
2 : 14, where Paul speaks of the " hand- 
writing of ordinances/' which was against 
and contrary to Christians, as being blotted 
out and nailed to the cross. But the Sab- 
bath was never against, or contrary to 
Christians, and could not be counted as a 
part of Jewish ordinances mentioned by 
the apostle, that after the Resurrection 
were arrayed against Christians. Christ 

only fulfilled the ceremonial law, but reaf- 

55 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

firmed the Moral Law, of which the Sab- 
bath is an essential part. Some people go 
so far as to say they will keep both 
Sabbaths, the (Jewish) Sabbath and the 
Christian Sabbath. Now there is but one 
Sabbath (o-dfifiaTov), one-seventh of the 
time, which under the Mosaic economy was 
called the Jewish Sabbath, and under the 
New Covenant is called the Christian Sab- 
bath. In the Fourth Commandment, the 
week is divided into two parts, secular and 
sacred. The Commandment says we 
must work during the secular part: "Six 
days shalt thou labor and do all thy work/' 
The obligation to work during the six days 
of the week is just as binding as to rest 
on the Sabbath. If a man can earn more 
than he needs, there are a thousand ways 
in which he can give the surplus for the 
benefit of mankind. It is necessary to 

56 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

work with mind or hands, or both, to enjoy 
the Sabbath, and be profited by it. 

Men who hold some of these theories 
have entered the vestibule of the Temple 
of Truth. If they will explore the Temple 
they will find more truth. 

The true theory undoubtedly is that the 
Sabbath (crdfifiaTov), as an Institution, was 
transferred from Saturday to Sunday at the 
Resurrection. This view is simple, nat- 
ural and reasonable, and, it is believed, it 
is fully sustained by the true rendering of 
the double cra/3 fidToov used by the evangel- 
ist in connection with the Resurrection. 
Greek scholars are rather conservative in 
expressing opinions, but there is a consen- 
sus of opinion that the rendering adopted 
in this monograph does not violate any 
principles of the Greek language. If be- 
lievers in the transfer have the courage 



57 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

they can walk in this path, but they must 
face the traditions of the past. One who 
walks in this way will probably stumble 
over the dictionaries, still his way is not 
really hedged up by philology. The path 
is open, but he must walk as a philosopher, 
and not as a philologist. And he must 
have "the courage of his convictions." 

Conservatism is good when it preserves 
the truth, and eliminates error, but there 
is no merit in perpetuating venerable 
errors. 

How reasonable to modify the Sabbath 
in regard to time, so that it should com- 
memorate the Resurrection as well as 
the creation of the world. In the Civil 
War statesmen declared that the Constitu- 
tion was flexible enough to save the nation. 
Is not the Sabbath flexible enough to meet 
the necessities of the Divine Kingdom ? 

Some Christians say they lose sight of 
58 



PROOFS OF TRANSFER OF THE SABBATH 

the Sabbath at the Resurrection, and do 
not feel certain that the (Jewish) Sabbath 
and Christian Sabbath are identical. If 
one should be in a park and see a deer of 
a certain size, shape and color run into a 
thicket, and a few moments afterwards 
should see a deer of the same size, shape 
and color rush out of the opposite side of 
the thicket, would he not conclude that it 
was the same deer, especially if he knew 
there was only one deer in the park ? 



59 



CHAPTER III 

PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING THE TRANS- 
FER OF THE SABBATH 

/ I V HE transfer of the Sabbath from Sat- 
urday to Sunday was in direct fulfill- 
ment of prophecy. Isaiah prophesied that 
such a transfer should take place. In 
speaking of the New Creation (Is. 65 : 17- 
19) he says: " For, behold, I create new 
heavens and a new earth : and the former 
shall not be remembered, nor come into 
mind." The (Jewish) Sabbath was the 
memorial day set apart for the commemor- 
ation of the work of creation. The proph- 
et says that this Sabbath day shall cease 
to be kept, for the old creation " shall not 
be remembered nor come into mind." The 

new heavens and the new earth, spoken 

60 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

of by the prophet, is a spiritual creation, 
for he says: " Behold, I create Jerusalem 
a rejoicing, and her people a joy." The 
old creation should fade away in the 
brighter light of the new creation, as the 
stars fade out in the light of the rising sun, 
and the transfer of the Sabbath, the me- 
morial of the work of creation, from Sat- 
urday to Sunday, would indicate that this 
prophecy has been fulfilled. 

That important movements would nat- 
urally take place at the time of the Resur- 
rection was indicated by the apostle when 
he speaks of the power (Swa/u?) of Christ's 
Resurrection. This was a crisis when the 
power of death was broken. 

In nature there have been profound 
movements. Geology teaches that transi- 
tions have occurred in the earth's crust 
from the earliest geological times. The 

larger part probably were operative over 

61 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

long periods and effected slow changes in 
the ocean level, but produced more or less 
exterminations among living species. Thus 
in passing from layer to layer in the rocks 
one or more species became extinct, with 
a corresponding introduction, under the 
laws of evolution, of new species. At the 
beginning of an epoch many new species 
would appear, and at the commencement 
of a period, a whole fauna. 

At longer intervals, greater convulsions 
have occurred in nature. The course of 
nature seems, at times, to have completed 
a cycle, terminating in a profound move- 
ment. These more violent transitions, or 
unfolding by internal forces, do not imply 
a retrogression, but a new birth, an exter- 
mination of life, perhaps an extinction of 
former races, but an introduction of higher 
and better forms of life. Such transitions 

have always resulted in an improved con- 

62 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

dition of things on the earth, higher and 
more perfect organizations having sprung 
into being. Geological history has thus 
been a periodical unfolding from the lower, 
more elementary and imperfect towards 
the higher forms of life. 

In a similar manner, the transition from 
Jewish to Christian economy was dynamic, 
and marked by great changes in the spirit- 
ual world. There was a great earthquake, 
when the angel of the Lord descended 
from heaven. In the divine economy 
there was a movement that introduced a 
new order of things. The Passover ceased 
to be observed, and the Lord's Supper was 
instituted. Circumcision passed away, and 
baptism became the seal of the new cove- 
nant. The veil of the temple was rent in 
twain, and the Shekinah, the visible symbol 
of the divine presence, was withdrawn. 

The middle wall of partition was broken 

63 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

down, and those who had been trained as 
spiritual guides went out to become the 
teachers of the whole world. The temple 
itself was to be destroyed with the holy 
city, Antioch was to become the mother 
city to the Gentiles, and Judaism was to 
pass away. The loosening and displace- 
ment of the Sabbath, this segment of time 
for rest and worship, in such a great up- 
heaval of things terrestrial and spiritual, 
as took place at the Resurrection, and its 
transfer to another place, or secular day, 
to put it in harmony with the new order of 
things, free it from the asperities of Juda- 
ism, and mellow it with the spirit of the 
Gospel, would be most reasonable. Under 
the Jewish economy the Sabbath was ob- 
served with strictness, a requirement neces- 
sary for a people in the earlier stages of 
national development. On the Sabbath 

there was a special burnt offering, the 

64 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

show-bread was renewed, deliberate prof- 
anation of the Sabbath was punished with 
death, the Jews cooked their food for the 
Sabbath on the previous day, they could 
not leave the camp in the wilderness on 
the Sabbath and never go beyond a Sab- 
bath day's journey, and marketing and 
public trade were prohibited. But the 
Lord of the Sabbath, when all power was 
given him in heaven and in earth, trans- 
ferred the Sabbath at the Resurrection 
from Saturday to Sunday, in the unfolding 
economies of grace, and put it in harmony 
with the new order of things. Dr. Philip 
Schaff, in his "History of the Christian 
Church ,, (v. i, p. 478), says: "The day 
[Sabbath] was transferred from the sev- 
enth to the first day of the week, not on 
the ground of a particular command, but 
by the free spirit of the Gospel, and by 

the power of certain great facts which lie 
5 65 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

at the foundation of the Christian Church." 
This transfer was in direct fulfillment of 
prophecy, when God declared, " Behold, 
I create all things new." 

In Ps. 1 1 8 : 19-29, there is a remarkable 
prophecy in regard to the transfer of the 
Sabbath. The psalmist is in an ecstatic, 
spiritual mood, and opens the psalm with 
repeated expressions of thanksgiving to 
the Lord, because his mercy endureth for- 
ever. The Lord had set the psalmist in a 
large place, where there was room to give 
him an abundant answer. The hostile 
nations had compassed him like bees, but 
they had been quenched like the fire of 
thorns. Holy light seems to break upon 
the psalmist, and he feels that he must 
worship the Lord. He turns his face to- 
wards the sanctuary to pour out his heart 
in thanksgiving. "Open to me," he says, 

"the gates of righteousness : I will go into 

66 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

them, and I will praise the Lord." As he 

looks about, the place evidently seems a 

little strange to him, but he realizes that it 

is the "gate of the Lord," for the Lord 

hears him, and has become his salvation. 

Suddenly the light of the Resurrection 

morn breaks over him, and with prophetic 

vision he exclaims : "The stone which the 

builders refused is become the head stone 

of the corner." As a Jew he is filled with 

wonder to find himself worshiping on a 

new holy day, but he says, "this is the 

Lord's doing ; this is the day the Lord hath 

made ; it is marvelous in our eyes." The 

Lord made all days, but this was a special 

day which he had consecrated and made 

holy. It was the day on which the people 

would enter the gates of righteousness 

and praise the Lord. It was the day on 

which the Lord would send prosperity, and 

he says, " we will rejoice and be glad in it," 

67 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

as Christ bids the women "all hail," or to 
rejoice on the Resurrection morn. The 
psalmist speaks as we would suppose an 
Israelite would express himself, under the 
Christian dispensation, and says : " Mighty 
is Jehovah, and hath given light to us. 
Bind the sacrifice with cords as far as the 
horns of the altar." In prophetic vision 
Jehovah had turned the night of Israel into 
day, and the psalmist sees the pillar of fire 
in the wilderness. This was the Resur- 
rection day, the Christian Sabbath, which 
the psalmist saw in vision, and he closes 
the psalm as he began it, with thanksgiving 
to the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. 
On the day of the Resurrection, Christ 
appeared five times to his disciples and to 
the holy women. On the next Saturday, 
the Jewish day for the observance of the 
Sabbath under the law, he did not appear 

to any one, but "after eight days," on the 

68 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

Lord's Day, he appeared to his disciples in 
the upper room, Thomas being with them. 
Why did the risen Savior cease to observe 
the Sabbath on Saturday, to meet with his 
disciples, and give them an opportunity to 
come into his immediate and sensible pres- 
ence to worship him, and meet them on the 
Lord's Day, if the Sabbath had not been 
transferred at the Resurrection from Satur- 
day to Sunday ? 

Marvelous is the fact that any Christian 
should now observe the Sabbath on Satur- 
day, as the Jews did under the law. The 
Sabbath has always been a Christian festi- 
val, and the psalmist says that we should 
11 rejoice and be glad in it." Traditionally 
Christ was crucified on Friday, and His 
body lay in the grave on Saturday, the day 
for the observance of the Sabbath under 
the Jewish economy. On Saturday His 

enemies triumphed over Him, and this 

69 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

season must demand humiliation and 
mourning rather than rejoicing. But when 
He rose from the dead, and met the holy 
women, He told them to rejoice. The 
character of this Christian festival would 
be preserved by the transfer of the Sab- 
bath from Saturday to Sunday, which was 
clearly foreshadowed, when Christ said : 
" Can the children of the bridechamber 
mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with 
them? but the days will come when the 
bridegroom shall be taken from them, and 
then shall they fast." 

The transfer of the Sabbath from Satur- 
day to Sunday preserves the Institution in 
all its integrity, and carries with it the 
authority of Jehovah, who ordained and 
hallowed it. The Sabbath under all dis- 
pensations is identical, one and the same, 
one-seventh of the time set apart for rest 

and worship, ordained at the creation of 

7° 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

the world and redolent with the aroma of 
Paradise, promulgated formally in the 
Moral Law on Mount Sinai, transferred at 
the Resurrection, and made holy and glori- 
ous under both covenants. This holy 
season for rest and worship, hoary with 
age, in being observed one day in seven, 
brings to remembrance the time when the 
heavens and earth were finished, and "the 
morning stars sang together, and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy/' Abraham, 
the friend of God, as he sat in his tent-door, 
saw the light of this sacred day break over 
the eastern hills, and all the patriarchs in 
their generations remembered to keep it 
holy. The Fourth Commandment was 
written twice by the finger of God, and 
given to Moses, the servant of God, when 
" Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, 
because the Lord descended upon it in fire, 

and the smoke thereof ascended as the 

71 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount 
quaked greatly." In the wilderness the 
children of Israel on the day previous to 
the Sabbath gathered twice as much manna 
as on other days, which kept over the Sab- 
bath, and a golden pot of manna was laid 
up before the Lord to be kept for their gen- 
erations. As the centuries unfolded in Jew- 
ish history, how often has the light of this 
blessed day broken over the holy city, and 
revealed the smoke of the special sacrifice 
typical of the "Lamb slain from the foun- 
dation of the world." As the morning light 
of this sacred day trembled along the crags 
of Mount Carmel, Elijah has doubtless 
stood in the entrance of his cave, with his 
mantle wrapped about his face, and wor- 
shiped times without number, until he went 
up to heaven in a chariot of fire. All 
earthly scenes pale in the supernal light 

which broke over the earth when the angel, 

72 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

whose "countenance was like lightning, 
and his raiment white as snow/' descended 
from heaven and rolled back the stone 
from the door of the sepulcher, and the 
Lord of life laid aside the habiliments of 
death, and on this holy day came forth as 
a Mighty Conqueror. On this day cloven 
tongues like as of fire sat upon the heads 
of the disciples, and the Gospel was mirac- 
ulously preached in all languages, and 
to all people out of every nation under 
heaven. 

If the sun every seventh day yielded 
some sweet influence not manifested in its 
ordinary rays, but after some conjunction 
of the celestial orbs, poured forth the same 
influence on another day of the week, 
would not men receive the blessed influ- 
ence without regard to the previous day of 
the week on which it had been shed forth, 

and would they not be thankful ? If nature 

73 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

should distill a more copious dew on some 

particular night of the week, but, after some 

secular change in nature, transferred this 

heavy dew-fall to another night of the 

week, would not men in arid countries be 

glad to have suffering vegetation refreshed 

without regard to the night of the week on 

which the dew had previously fallen ? Do 

not men need the spiritual influence of the 

Sabbath, the dew of Hermon, even the 

dew that descended on the mountains of 

Zion, so much over vast regions of this 

world, parched and withered under the 

baleful influences of sin, that they might 

disregard the particular day of the week on 

which the heavenly influences descended 

under some former economy, and pray 

that, "the windows of heaven might be 

opened' ' in God's own time, and a blessing 

be poured out that there should not be 

room enough to receive it ? The Sabbath 

74 



PROPHECIES FORESHADOWING TRANSFER 

may be compared to a mighty, continu- 
ously flowing river, whose unobstructed 
waters pour through all dispensations, and 
bear on their bosom the most precious 
gifts of God. And this is the " river, the 
streams whereof shall make glad the city 
of God," and this river of God shall flow 
on forevermore increasing in volume and 
power until the holy light of the Sabbath 
shall shine into every home on earth, and 
gladden every heart, and be merged at 
last into the light of heaven. 



75 



CHAPTER IV 

PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

HT^HE transfer of the Sabbath at the 
Resurrection gives the world, in the 
Sabbath, a perpetual memorial of the 
crowning miracle of Christ's work as the 
Redeemer of men. Standing at the grave 
of one whom He had loved, Christ declared 
that He was the Resurrection and the 
life, and at His command "he that was 
dead came forth bound hand and foot 
with graveclothes." The Resurrection, the 
divine seal that Christ was the Messiah 
and the pledge of the general Resurrec- 
tion at the last day, is a vital truth in 
Christianity that overshadows other truths. 

Paul says "if Christ be not risen, then is 

76 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

our preaching vain, and your faith is also 
vain." Without the Resurrection death 
would be an extinction of hopes, and no 
disembodied spirit could be rehabilitated 
and be made perfect. The Christian 
Church rests on this pivotal fact of the 
Resurrection, which is as well established 
as any fact in Jewish history. A man could 
just as reasonably deny the exodus or the 
captivity of the Jews, or the existence of 
Herod the Great, as to deny the Cruci- 
fixion and Resurrection of Christ. How 
natural that Christians should be given a 
perpetual memorial, that Christ in His 
Resurrection should enable man to say, 
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory? " Should not every 
follower of Christ, who rejoices in His 
Resurrection, delight also in observing the 
Lord's Day as a memorial of His power 

over death, the last enemy of man ? 

77 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

The New Testament affords us abund- 
ant evidence of the transfer of the Sab- 
bath at the Resurrection, and this evidence 
is confirmed and strengthened by the 
observance of the Sabbath on the first day 
of the week by the risen Savior, and by 
inspired apostles and early Christians. In 
the divine economy the transfer of the 
Sabbath on the Resurrection morning 
doubtless came at the moment that Christ 
rose from the dead, but the knowledge of 
this fact dawned gradually on the Chris- 
tian world like the light of a new day. The 
sun does not rise with a single bound, but 
the first glimmer of light in the east deep- 
ens almost imperceptibly until the heavens 
are on fire, and the full-orbed sun lifts 
itself slowly above the horizon to flood the 
world with light. Sabbath evolution, as 
known to man, was very gradual, not pro- 
voking opposition on the part of the Jews, 

78 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

who were intensely prejudiced in favor of 
Judaism. 

As the transfer of the Sabbath did not 
take place until the moment of the Resur- 
rection, naturally no express command 
would be given in regard to it by the 
Savior, but it was probably included in the 
"many things" that Christ desired to say 
unto his disciples, which he affirmed they 
could not bear at that time. The observ- 
ance of the Christian Sabbath by the risen 
Lord, and the example of inspired men in 
keeping this holy day, is as conclusive of 
the transfer of the Sabbath as if a direct 
command had been given. The example 
of inspired men in obeying the moral law, 
or in observing the ceremonial law, is as 
conclusive in regard to what they believe, 
as the precepts which they may utter. 
The example of a Christian minister in 

living a strictly upright and honest life is 

79 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

more powerful with men than any precepts 
which may be given in his public teaching. 
Inspired men naturally pursued a peaceful 
method in bringing about a general observ- 
ance of the Christian Sabbath that would 
not provoke opposition. Jewish Christians 
continued to observe the (Jewish) Sabbath 
until Jerusalem was destroyed, and many 
of the Jews continued to meet with them 
and worship on the Lord's Day. The 
Jews continued to be circumcised, but 
many were willing to be baptized. The 
Jews still kept the Passover, but many 
were willing to celebrate the Lord's Sup- 
per. Christians still prayed in the temple 
and in the synagogues, and many Jews 
would mingle with them in Christian assem- 
blies, in their homes and in the fields. In 
this manner the Christian Sabbath came 
into observance without serious opposi- 
tion, until it became generally established 

80 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

wherever Christ was worshiped as the 
risen Lord. 

Dr. Philip Schaff, that most eminent 
Christian scholar (" History of the Chris- 
tian Church," pp. 478-9), says : 

"The universal and uncontradicted Sun- 
day observance in the second century can 
be explained only by the fact that it had 
its roots in apostolic practice. Such ob- 
servance is the more to be appreciated as 
it had no support in civil legislation before 
the age of Constantine, and must have 
been connected with many inconveniences, 
considering the lowly social condition of 
the majority of Christians and their de- 
pendence upon their heathen masters and 
employers. Sunday thus became, by an 
easy and natural transformation, the Chris- 
tian Sabbath or weekly day of rest, at 
once answering the typical import of the 

Jewish Sabbath, and itself forming in turn 
6 81 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

a type of the eternal rest of the people of 
God in the heavenly Canaan. In the gos- 
pel dispensation the Sabbath is not a deg- 
radation, but an elevation, of the week- 
days to a higher plane, looking to the 
consecration of all time and all work. It 
is not a legal ceremonial bondage, but 
rather a precious gift of grace, a privilege, 
a holy rest in God in the midst of the 
unrest of the world, a day of spiritual 
refreshing in communion with God and in 
fellowship of the saints, a foretaste and 
pledge of the never-ending Sabbath in 
heaven. 

" The due observance of it, in which the 
churches of England, Scotland and Amer- 
ica, to their incalculable advantage, excel 
the churches of the European continent, 
is a wholesome school of discipline, a 
means of grace for the people, a safeguard 

of public morality and religion, a bulwark 

82 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

against infidelity, and a source of immeas- 
urable blessing to the church, the state, 
and the family. Next to the Church and 
the Bible, the Lord's Day is the chief pillar 
of Christian society. ,, 

It has been seen that the risen Lord 
observed the Christian Sabbath, meeting 
with his disciples, and with the holy women 
five times on the day of the Resurrection. 
On the next (Jewish) Sabbath, he did not 
appear to anyone, a fact which can be 
explained only on the ground that Satur- 
day, in the divine economy, had ceased to 
be the day of the week on which the Sab- 
bath was to be observed, after the Resur- 
rection. 

"After eight days," John says, "again 

his disciples were within, and Thomas with 

them : then came Jesus, the doors being 

shut, and stood in the midst, and said, 

Peace be unto you." Christ thus gave 

83 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

divine authority for the observance of the 
Christian Sabbath on the first day of the 
week. 

We have already seen that about twelve 
years after the Resurrection, there was a 
Christian Sabbath (Acts 13) observed at 
Antioch, Pisidia, by Gentile converts, and 
that this following Sabbath was between 
the (Jewish) Sabbaths and near at hand. 
On that day called a Sabbath, we read 
that almost the whole city of Antioch came 
together to hear the word of God, and 
Paul and Barnabas preached to them. And 
when the Gentiles heard the words of the 
apostles, "they were glad, and glorified 
the word of the Lord : and as many as 
were ordained to eternal life believed/' 

About twenty-six years after the Resur- 
rection, Luke says (Acts 20:7), "Upon 
the first day of the week [on one of the 

Sabbaths], when the disciples came to- 

84 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

gether [at Troas] to break bread, Paul 
preached to them, ready to depart on the 
morrow/ ' 

About sixty-three years after the Resur- 
rection, John the Beloved says (Rev. i : 
10), "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's 
day, and I heard behind me a great voice, 
as of a trumpet.' ' The Holy Spirit thus 
came upon the beloved disciple, on the 
Christian Sabbath, when a wonderful reve- 
lation of things about to come to pass was 
given to him, — a revelation that imparts to 
the world nearly all that is known of those 
mighty events that shall take place towards 
the close of the Christian dispensation, 
and when time shall be no more. 

Justin Martyr, who lived at the close of 

the first and the beginning of the second 

century, says : "And on the day called 

Sunday, all who live in cities, or in the 

country, gather together to one place, and 

85 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the memoirs of the apostles or the writings 
of the prophets are read, as long as time 
permits ; then, when the reader has ceased, 
the president verbally instructs and exhorts 
to the imitation of these good things. 
Then we all rise together and pray, and, 
as we before said, when our prayer is 
ended, bread and wine and water are 
brought, and the president in like manner 
offers prayers and thanksgivings, accord- 
ing to his ability, and the people assent, 
saying, Amen ; and there is a distribution 
to each, and a participation of that over 
which thanks have been given, and to 
those who are absent a portion is sent by 
the deacons. And they who are well to 
do, and willing, give what each thinks fit ; 
and what is collected is deposited with the 
president, who succors the orphans and 
widows, and those who, through sickness, 

or any other cause, are in want, and those 

86 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

who are in bonds, and the strangers 
sojourning among us, and, in a word, takes 
care of all who are in need. But Sunday 
is the day on which we all hold common 
assembly, because it is the first day on 
which God, having wrought a change in 
the darkness and matter, made the world ; 
and Jesus Christ, our Savior, on the same 
day rose from the dead. For he was cru- 
cified on the day before that of Saturn 
[Saturday] ; and on the day after that of 
Saturn, which is the day of the sun, having 
appeared to his apostles and disciples, he 
taught them these things, which we have 
submitted to you also for your considera- 
tion. " (The First Apology of Justin Mar- 
tyr, chapter LXVIL) It is true that Justin 
Martyr does not call Sunday the Sabbath, 
or the Lord's Day, but he was writing to a 
heathen emperor who was ignorant of the 

meaning of these terms. 

87 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

Barnabas says: "We keep the eighth 
day with joyfulness, the day also on which 
Jesus rose again from the dead." (Chapter 
XVII.) 

"The Teaching of the Apostles," which 
was probably written not more than forty 
years after the death of the apostle John, 
says : "But every Lord's Day do ye gather 
yourselves together, and break bread and 
give thanksgiving," etc. ("Teaching of the 
Apostles," chapter XIV.) 

Tertullian, who was born at Carthage, 
about A. D. 150 or 160, was the first great 
writer of Latin Christianity. Very little is 
known of his personal life, but he is con- 
sidered one of the most original and exalted 
characters of the ancient church. In his 
works he speaks of the Lord's Day as a 
Christian solemnity. 

Dionysius, who became Bishop of Cor- 
inth, A. D. 170, says: "We passed this 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

holy Lord's Day, in which we read your 
letter, from the constant reading of which 
we shall be able to draw admonition/ ' 
(Eusebius, Eccl. History, book 4, chapter 
XXIII.) 

The testimony of Irenaeus, Bishop of 
Lyons, who lived in the second century, 
has great weight on this subject. He 
probably passed his youth in the neighbor- 
hood of Smyrna, Asia Minor, and was the 
child of Christian parents. His testimony 
is extremely valuable, because he was the 
disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple 
of John the Beloved. In his letter to Flo- 
rinus, Irenaeus says : 

"I saw you when I was yet, as a boy, 

in Lower Asia with Polycarp. ... I 

could even now point out the place where 

the blessed Polycarp sat and spoke, and 

describe his going out and coming in, his 

manner of life, his personal appearance, 
•89 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the addresses he delivered to the multitude, 
how he spoke of his intercourse with John, 
and with the others who had seen the Lord, 
and how he recalled their words. And 
everything that he had heard from them 
about the Lord, about His miracles and 
His teaching, Polycarp told us, as one who 
had received it from those who had seen 
the Word of Life with their own eyes, and 
all this in complete harmony with the Scrip- 
tures. To this I then listened, through the 
mercy of God vouchsafed to me, with all 
eagerness, and wrote it not on paper, but 
in my heart, and still by the grace of God, 
I ever bring it into fresh remembrance/' 
(Ap. Euseb., H. E., v. 20.) 

These are golden words, establishing a 
chain of tradition without a parallel in eccle- 
siastical history — Jesus, John, Polycarp, 
Irenseus. Here is a traditional stream 

which flows from Christ, the fountain of 

90 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS , 

all truth. What testimony has Irenaeus, 
the eminent and learned Bishop of Lyons, 
France, who, after Polycarp, is considered 
the most faithful representative of the 
Johannean school, who uses the terms 
u Logos" and "Son of God" interchange- 
ably, and keeps more within the limits of 
the simple Bible statements than any of 
his contemporaries ? Irenaeus says : " On 
the Lord's Day every one of us, Christians, 
keep the Sabbath, meditating in the law," 
or Scriptures, "and rejoicing in the works 
of God." 

Clement, of Alexandria, who was born 
about the middle of the second century, 
was one of the most celebrated of the 
Christian fathers. Living at the very cen- 
ter of the learning of his age, and residing 
a portion of his life at Jerusalem, when 
driven away from Alexandria by persecu- 
tion, he had every opportunity to know all 

9 1 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

the facts in regard to the sacred days of 
the Jews. He says : " He, in fulfillment 
of the precept, keeps the Lord's Day 
when he abandons an evil disposition, and 
assumes that of the Gnostic, glorifying the 
Lord's resurrection in himself." (Book 7, 
chapter XII.) 

Origen, a man of great erudition, who 
was born A. D. 185 or 186, says : "If it be 
objected to us on this subject that we our- 
selves are accustomed to observe certain 
days, as, for example, the Lord's Day, the 
preparation, the passover, or pentecost." 
(Origen against Celsus, book 8, chapter 
XXII.) This clearly shows that Origen 
observed the Lord's Day. 

Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, who was 
born about A. D. 230, says : " The obliga- 
tion of the Lord's Resurrection binds us to 
keep the paschal festival on the Lord's 

Day." "The solemn festival of the Res- 

92 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

urrection of the Lord can be celebrated 
only on the Lord's Day." " Our regard 
for the Lord's Resurrection which took 
place on the Lord's Day will lead us to 
celebrate it on the same principle/ ' 

Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, who was 
born in the latter part of the third century, 
was a man thoroughly qualified to know 
all the facts about the sacred days of the 
Jews. He was born in Palestine, where 
Christ and the Apostles labored, studied 
at Antioch, where Paul labored for years, 
traveled in Egypt and Asia Minor, and 
bears the title of " Father of Church His- 
tory," having written the first history of 
the Christian Church. He says on the 
ninety-second Psalm : "The Word by the 
new covenant translated and transferred 
the feast of the Sabbath to the morning 
light and gave us the true rest, viz., the 

saving Lord's Day." "On this day, which 

93 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

is the first of light and of the true sun, we 
assemble, after an interval of six days, and 
celebrate holy and spiritual Sabbaths, even 
all nations redeemed by him throughout 
the world, and do those things according 
to the spiritual law which were decreed for 
the priests to do on the Sabbath/ ' "And 
all things whatsoever that it was the duty 
to do on the Sabbath, these we have trans- 
ferred to the Lord's Day as more honor- 
able than the Jewish Sabbath/ ' This tes- 
timony of the "Father of Church History," 
who had every opportunity to know all the 
facts, is conclusive that Christians in his 
time kept the Lord's Day, and not the 
(Jewish) Sabbath. 

Petavius, who was born at Orleans, in 
1583, was the most celebrated writer of 
the past Tridentine age. He says that 
"but one Lord's Day was observed in the 

earliest times of the Church/' 

94 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

The testimony of the early Christians 
is explicit and convincing that after the 
Resurrection the Sabbath was observed 
on Sunday, and this proof is strengthened 
by the testimony of the writings of the 
most celebrated men for centuries in the 
ancient church. We have seen that the 
risen Lord met with his disciples on this 
day, the apostles continued to observe it, 
and the early Christians became almost 
unanimous in keeping the Sabbath for rest 
and worship on Sunday. Sunday observ- 
ance has become like a mighty river pour- 
ing its waters through all Christian lands. 
To go back and observe the Sabbath on 
Saturday would seem like going back to 
Judaism ; not receiving the New Testa- 
ment as the Word of God ; giving up the 
New Testament seal of the covenant, and 
returning to circumcision, the ancient seal 

of the covenant of the righteousness by 

95 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

faith ; or like offering burnt sacrifices for 
sins, when the crucified Christ is "the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." 

The Sabbath is so necessary to the wel- 
fare of a nation as a time for rest and 
worship, and the observance of the Lord's 
Day became so prevalent in the fourth 
century that laws were enacted by Con- 
stantine, the first Christian Emperor (321 
A. D.), recognizing the observance of Sun- 
day as a legal duty, and enacting that all 
courts of justice, inhabitants of towns, and 
workshops, were to be at rest on Sunday 
{venerabili die Solis), with the exception 
of those who were engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. Pleasure was forbidden on the 
Lord's Day {die dominicd), as well as busi- 
ness, and no spectacle was to be exhibited 
in a theater or circus. Should the birthday 
of the Emperor fall on Sunday, the cele- 
bration of it was to be postponed. 

96 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

In the history of the Christian Church, 
God has manifested his presence on the 
Lord's Day, since the days of Pentecost, 
in a wonderful manner. The apostle says 
(Heb. 4 : 9), " There remaineth therefore a 
rest [cra/3/3aricr/i,d?] to the people of God." 
This word translated "rest" is significant, 
and evidently means that in the Christian 
Church there is a Sabbath founded on the 
fact that Christ rested from his work of 
redemption, as the (Jewish) Sabbath was 
established on the fact that God rested on 
the seventh day from the work of creation. 
It must be evident, to every careful student 
of the Sacred Word, that this "rest" 
spoken of is the Christian Sabbath, which 
the apostle uses as a type of the eternal 
rest in heaven. 

Since the day of Pentecost, God has 

been witnessing by the outpouring of the 

Holy Spirit that the Lord's Day is the 
7 97 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, and 
that worship on this holy day is well pleas- 
ing in his sight He who changeth "the 
times and the seasons/' and blotteth out 
sins "when the times of refreshing shall 
come from the Lord," has graciously chosen 
this day which commemorates the Resur- 
rection of his Son, as the time to send out 
his Spirit "from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind," to cause cloven tongues like 
as of fire to sit upon his disciples, to fill 
them with the Holy Spirit, to cause them to 
speak with other tongues in proclaiming 
the Gospel to all nations under heaven, as 
the Spirit gave them utterance, and to blot 
out the sins of his people. 

He who ordained the Sabbath at the 
creation of the world, and formally pro- 
mulgated the law of the Sabbath on Mount 
Sinai amidst thunders and lightnings which 

made the mountain tremble, could not be 

98 



PRACTICE OF EARLY CHRISTIANS 

pleased by the substitution of another day, 
on which the Sabbath is observed, without 
his approval. He who declares that he is 
a jealous God, and will not give his honor 
to another, who has commanded that 
strange fire shall not be offered on his 
altars, and when Nadab and Abihu offered 
strange fire before the Lord caused the 
fire to go out to devour them, who smote 
Uzza so that he died, because he put forth 
his hand to hold the ark, such a God 
would not be pleased to have the Institu- 
tion of the Sabbath abrogated by man, 
and another institution set up by human 
authority. He who declares that "if any 
man shall add unto these things, God shall 
add unto him the plagues that are written 
in this book/' and, "if any man shall take 
away from the words of the book of this 
prophecy, God shall take away his part 
out of the book of life, and out of the holy 

a 99 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

city, and from the things which are written 
in this book," he who instituted the Sab- 
bath and hallowed it, would not pour out 
his Spirit as a divine witness, if his chosen 
people, on the day of his appointment, did 
not seek his face, and draw nigh to the 
mercy seat. But for twenty centuries the 
heavenly dew has fallen upon worshiping 
assemblies on the Lord's Day, and they 
have received the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, signifying that this is the sacred 
day, the holy Sabbath, under all covenants, 
"when the times of refreshing shall come 
from the presence of the Lord." 



IOO 



CHAPTER V 

THE TRANSFERRED OR CHRISTIAN SABBATH 

n.^HE transfer of the Sabbath from one 
day to another to commemorate more 
important historical events, and the modi- 
fication of the character of this Institution 
to suit the nature of the covenant under 
which it is observed, is in harmony with 
the general law of development found 
everywhere. It may reasonably be con- 
ceded, as indicated by science, that the 
Creator has evolved the material universe 
from fire mists, under the operation of law, 
as the modal expression of the divine will. 
In nature, this law of development has 
been well established. Evolution is defined 
as continuous progressive change, accord- 

IOI 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

ing to certain laws, by means of resident 
forces. Theistic evolution clothes the First 
Cause with personal characteristics as the 
self-conscious, intelligent Maker of all 
worlds, who orders all things according to 
the good pleasure of his will. 

The most plausible philosophical view 
of the origin of the solar system, and prob- 
ably of all stellar systems, is in accordance 
with the Nebular Hypothesis, which claims 
that the present solar system is the result 
of a process of gradual condensation and 
evolution from primordial chaotic gaseous 
materials. La Place conceived that the 
sun was originally surrounded by an atmos- 
phere, or rather that the matter of the solar 
system consisted originally of a nebula of 
very tenuous matter, that extended beyond 
the limits of the solar system. Condensa- 
tion would take place by the loss of heat 

through radiation, and under the cooling 

102 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

and contraction of the general mass, rings 
would be separated and thrown off by the 
centrifugal force from the nebula. The 
matter comprising these rings would sub- 
sequently be aggregated around certain 
points, and break up into planets and sat- 
ellites. This hypothesis strives to lay a 
rational cosmogony of the solar system, 
and is made very plausible by many exist- 
ing facts, such as the elliptical orbits of all 
the planets and satellites, approaching 
very nearly to the circular form, the revo- 
lution of all the orbs (excepting the satel- 
lites of Uranus) being in the same direction 
around the sun, the rotation of all the orbs 
on their axes being in the same direction 
from west to east, the confinement of all 
the orbs in their orbits within a small dis- 
tance of the plane of the solar equator, 
and the period of the orbital and axial rev- 
olution of some of the satellites being the 

103 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

same. Professor Joseph Le Conte affirms 
that there are three hundred and ninety 
coincidences in the solar system which are 
conformable to the Nebular Hypothesis. 
The type of evolution, as a law among 
living forms, is embryonic development. 
In the development of the egg the changes 
are continuously progressive, according to 
well-known laws, produced by vital forces. 
From the microscopic spherule of proto- 
plasm, living but unorganized, cell is added 
to cell, tissue to tissue, organism to organ- 
ism, and function to function, in the ascend- 
ing series, which becomes more complex 
through every stage of development. In 
passing up the animal scale there is also a 
progress, the animal body becoming more 
complex in structure through all the series 
until we reach the last form. The fossil- 
iferous rocks also show progress, from the 

dawn of life in the lowest sedimentary 
104 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

rocks, where we find, as a general rule, 
animal and vegetable organisms in the 
most simple and rudimentary forms, 
through all the immense eras of geological 
history, each form as a general rule becom- 
ing more complex in structure, until we 
rise to the rocks of the present age. 

This law of progress is also apparent in 
Revelation. "All Scripture given by inspi- 
ration of God " (OeoTTvevo-ToSy God-inspired) 
must have been composed under divine 
influence which flowed forth under the 
direction of divine wisdom, and in harmony 
with the divine method of working mani- 
fested everywhere. God revealed his Will, 
and disclosed his purposes to man in his 
Word, as his children were able to compre- 
hend and profit by it. There was neces- 
sarily a gradual unfoldment of the divine 
purposes adapted to the power of appre- 
hension of human nature under its finite 

105 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

limitations. Paul fed the Corinthian Chris- 
tians with milk, and not with meat, for they 
were not able to bear it. Were the sun 
to come to the zenith with a single bound, 
the light poured forth suddenly would be 
overpowering and blinding. The Logos 
was incarnated and veiled to human view, 
but when this veil was partially removed in 
his metamorphosis, "his face did shine as 
the sun, and his raiment was white as the 
light/ ' The revelation of divine truth was 
gradual in type and shadows through long 
ages, before the Son of God brought life 
and immortality to light in the Gospel. 

The law of evolution has many phases 
in nature, in history, and in the communi- 
cation of the Divine Will. In human his- 
tory, evolution has had three stages, the 
era of physical force, the era of intellectual 
supremacy, and the era of spiritual power. 

In Revelation there has been a gradual 
106 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

unfolding of divine truth, adapted to man's 
capacities, and suitable to his necessities. 
Many persons living amidst varying cir- 
cumstances, at different periods, reaching 
over about sixteen centuries, were inspired 
to write the Sacred Scriptures, and the 
revelation was given in such elementary 
forms, under such varied environments, 
and clothed in so many garbs, that it is 
adapted to the whole human family under 
every condition of human experience. The 
sacred record embraces history, biography, 
chronicles of events, reigns of kings, 
accounts of battles, sojournings of patri- 
archs, decisions of judges, lives of proph- 
ets, records of marches, divine judgments 
and mercies, proverbs, parables and epis- 
tles, all teaching the same doctrine, and 
infused by the same spirit, but as diversi- 
fied as the landscape of the countries 

where the revelation was given. The pro- 

107 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

gressive revelation of the divine will delin- 
eates the struggles of God's people in the 
earth, reveals the character of God, shows 
his attributes and perfections, gives a 
description of the appearance of angels, 
recounts celestial visions, the sinfulness of 
human conduct, rules of life, prophecies 
of future events, and judgments of the 
Lord, and contains hymns and sublime 
odes, sometimes entering into minute 
details of human life, and at other times 
leaping over whole generations of men, 
only touching those points that are signifi- 
cant in the onward progress of the divine 
kingdom. The Bible has been likened to 
a stream that dwindles at times to a tiny 
rivulet, and again broadens out into an 
expanse of waters like a shoreless ocean. 
The stream of Revelation issuing from the 
silence of the past eternity, courses along 

the shores of time, and is lost in the depths 
108 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

of an eternity which may be likened to an 
ocean that is shoreless and fathomless. In 
giving a progressive revelation, God made 
himself known in words that were some- 
times spoken by inspired men as they were 
spiritualized and lifted to higher planes to 
see and utter divine things, and also by his 
works, in his providential dealings with his 
children. 

The economies of divine grace were also 
progressive from Paradise to Pentecost. 
In the Old Testament we have a natural 
time-unfoldment involving the Creation of 
the World, the Garden of Eden, the Fall, 
the Flood, the Dispersion of Nations, the 
Call of Abraham, the Deliverance Out of 
Egypt, the Giving of the Law on Mount 
Sinai, the Conquest of Palestine, the Estab- 
lishment of David's Kingdom, the Disper- 
sion of the Jews, the Captivity of Juda, 



109 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

and the Return from the Babylonish Cap- 
tivity. 

In the New Testament, we have a pro- 
gressive time-unfolding of events, the 
Announcement of the Angels, the Birth 
of Christ, the wonderful Events of his 
Life, his Crucifixion, Death, Burial, Resur- 
rection and Ascension, Pentecost and the 
Preaching of the Gospel to all nations 
under heaven. We have the unfolding of 
the Adamic Covenant, the Mosaic Dispen- 
sation and the New Covenant. Circum- 
cision, the Seal of the Covenant of Right- 
eousness by faith comes and goes, and 
Baptism becomes the Seal of the New 
Covenant. In olden times men saw 
visions, and dreamed dreams ; there was a 
revelation by Urim and Thummim, until 
the Son of God revealed more clearly the 
Will of God. 

In passing from Mosaic to Christian 
no 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

economy, the Sabbath would naturally be 
affected by the general law of evolution, 
and partake of the nature of the covenant 
under which it is observed. There is a 
flexibility about divine ordinances that 
adjusts them to the necessities of the case 
for the promotion of the greatest good to 
men. Human machinery wears itself out 
by friction among its parts, but the move- 
ments of Providence are frictionless, and 
as silent as the wheels of time. A machine 
sometimes fails to meet the necessities that 
arise in manufacturing and must be thrown 
aside, or supplemented by some other 
machine to carry forward the work to a 
higher plane, to produce greater excellence 
in the manufactured product. The Sab- 
bath, however, has a flexibility that adapts 
it to all exigencies that may arise in human 
history. The Sabbath has a vitality that 

endures the lapse of time, that produces 

in 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

an inflorescence in all climes, and bears 
fruit that grows more mellow as the cycles 
of time run their rounds. There is a flex- 
ibility about the Institution, and divine 
providence molds it to meet the necessities 
of man in his progressive development. 
The transfer of the Sabbath from one day 
to another enlarges its scope as a com- 
memorative ordinance, and the relaxation 
of Judaistic rigor puts it in harmony with 
the spirit of the Gospel. 

When first given, the Sabbath commem- 
orated the creation of the world, and it 
was subsequently hedged about by restric- 
tions adapted to a primitive people, who 
were in the first stages of human develop- 
ment. There was a strictness about the 
observance of the Institution under the 
Mosaic dispensation that disappeared 
under the New Covenant. The Jews could 
not understand how Christ should heal on 

112 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

the Sabbath day, or how his disciples could 
walk through the fields on the Sabbath, 
and rub out the wheat or barley in their 
hands to satisfy their hunger. This strict- 
ness degenerated among the Jews into a 
micrological casuistry that made it unlaw- 
ful to catch a flea on the Sabbath, unless it 
were biting its assailant. No one could 
walk upon the grass, because it would be 
bruised — a kind of threshing ; one rabbi 
decided that a Jew could not move between 
sunrise and sunset on the Sabbath, because 
the Jews were forbidden to go out and 
gather manna on the Sabbath in the wilder- 
ness. Thousands of Jews suffered death 
rather than resist their enemies on the Sab- 
bath. A traveler at Safed was approached 
by a quarrelsome and profane Jew with the 
request to wind his watch on Friday even- 
ing, because the sun had gone down. If 

a man plucked a bunch of grapes after the 
8 113 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

sun set on Friday, the grapes must be 
dropped less he carry a burden ; Jewish 
women could not wear jewelry, because 
that would be carrying a burden ; if a hen 
laid an egg on the Sabbath in the regular 
way, it could not be eaten ; but if the hen 
was being fattened for the table, the egg 
could be eaten ; Gamaliel suffered his beast 
of burden, that had fallen into the mire, to 
die because he would not remove the bur- 
den from his back on the Sabbath ; a radish 
might be dipped in salt, but it could not be 
left in it over the Sabbath, because that 
would be making a pickle ; it was unlawful 
to pick a fig, or even a blade of grass on 
the Sabbath ; it was lawful to clear away 
enough rubbish to ascertain if the man was 
dead, if a wall had fallen upon him on the 
Sabbath, but if life was extinct, the body 
must be left under the rubbish until the 

next day. Such casuistry reminds one of 
114 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

the hair-splitting questions that were in 
vogue in the middle ages, when the learned 
doctors discussed profoundly whether the 
angels were happier in the forenoon, or in 
the afternoon. 

Christ declared that "the Sabbath was 
made for man, and not man for the Sab- 
bath' ' ; and Paul says, "the letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life." Under Judaistic 
rigor and casuistry, the Sabbath became a 
part of that "yoke upon the neck of the 
disciples, which/ ' Peter said, " neither our 
fathers nor we were able to bear/' In 
freeing the Sabbath from restrictions and 
human perversion, Christ did not abolish 
the Institution any more than benevolence 
was done away when alms-givers were 
admonished "not to let the left hand know 
what the right hand doeth" ; or prayer 
was forbidden when Christ rebuked the 



"5 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

Pharisees for praying on the corners of the 
streets. 

In opposition to the Pharisaic Sabbath, 
we may place the Sabbath of Paris and of 
continental Europe, where the holy day 
becomes a holiday. It is estimated that 
sixty-two and one-half per cent, of the 
population of any country, on the average, 
can attend church. In New York City, it 
is estimated that twenty-five per cent, of 
this number attend church ; in Berlin, 
Hamburg and Bremen, only two per cent, 
of this number attend church. Thousands 
of people never go inside of a Protestant 
or Catholic church except to attend a wed- 
ding or a funeral. 

In 1884, Dr. Stocker, in the German 
Parliament, stated that "the large towns 
of Germany have a smaller number of 
churches in proportion to the population 

116 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

than those of any other country in Chris- 
tendom." 

In 1883, when there was a movement to 
open public museums in England on the 
Sabbath, Earl Cairns, in his speech on May 
8, 1883, m the House of Lords, read the 
following extract from a letter written by 
a distinguished gentleman of Germany, 
which contrasts the Sabbath of Germany 
with that of Great Britain : " We Ger- 
mans are, to a great extent, far removed 
from such a celebration of Sunday. The 
Day of Rest and of most elevated joy is 
too often robbed of its honor. The fore- 
noon of Sunday is given up to work, and 
the afternoon to pleasure. That which can 
elevate man is often despised, but that 
which degrades him is sought after. On 
Sunday the policemen reap their most 
abundant harvest; on Sunday children occa- 
sion the greatest anxiety ; on Sunday even- 

117 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

ing, above all other times, does the wife 
anticipate the return of her husband with 
a foreboding heart. Drunkenness and 
rioting celebrate their greatest triumph on 
Sunday ; and most of the misdemeanors 
are committed on that day, or are inti- 
mately connected with the misuse of it. 
We turn, therefore, to our countrymen 
with the urgent request that they would, 
in their various spheres, endeavor to pro- 
cure for the Sunday a more honorable 
observance in our land. If the Sunday 
acquires a different character, the national 
life will rest on a surer basis." 

Dr. Reuen Thomas says : " More than 
any other country, Germany seems to me 
an illustration of St. Paul's words, 'The 
letter killeth! Since Luther s time she 
seems to have been singularly destitute of 
what in Scripture is called ' vision ' — vision 

as distinct from that intelligence that comes 
118 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

of mental culture. Where there is no 
vision the people perish. In the religious 
realm of things, Germany is much more 
of a warning than an example/ ' 

Rev. E. W. Hitchcock, D.D., ex-pastor 
of the American Chapel in Paris, writes to 
Rev. William F. Crafts, author of an excel- 
lent work on the Sabbath, entitled "The 
Sabbath for Man," as follows : u Concern- 
ing the present observance, or non-observ- 
ance, of the Sabbath in France, it may be 
said in general that Sunday is the French- 
man's holiday, not his holy day. The fetes, 
'spectacles/ concerts, operas, and theaters 
are made doubly attractive on that day. It 
is the day for the public fetes, the popular 
elections [when Christians must electioneer 
and vote, or lose their political rights], the 
military reviews, the races, the illumina- 
tions, the exhibitions, the popular gather- 
ings, political, socialistic, humanitarian, 

119 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

artistic. The Catholic Church allows great 
liberty to its members. Provided they 
attend early mass, they may do what they 
please and go where they please the rest 
of the day. The Protestants, as a general 
thing, keep the day better, but they are far 
from being Puritanic in their ideas. They 
believe in ( making the Sabbath a delight ' 
— according to their own idea of delight — 
and would not hesitate to walk in the pub- 
lic parks, visit the picture-galleries, attend 
concerts, receive their friends, etc. They 
realize, however, that Sunday is the Lord's 
Day as well as man's day, and that upon 
its observance is conditioned the moral and 
religious welfare of the nation." 

Robert McCheyne, lamenting over the 
Sabbath of Paris, says : "Alas ! poor Paris 
knows no Sabbath. All the shops are 
open, and all the inhabitants are on the 

wing in search of pleasures—pleasures 
120 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

that perish in the using. I thought of 
Babylon and Sodom as I passed through 
the crowd. I cannot tell how I longed for 
the peace of the Scottish Sabbath/' 

Pierre Joseph Proudhon says : " Sunday 
in the towns is a day of rest without motive 
or end ; an occasion of display for the 
women and children ; of consumption in 
the restaurants and wine-shops ; of degrad- 
ing idleness ; of surfeit and debauchery. 
The workmen make merry, the grisettes 
dance, the soldier tipples, the tradesman 
alone is busy." 

The Abbe Gaum6, a Catholic authority, 
deplores the laxity of the French Sunday : 
"Where now do these men, women and 
children, free now as to their time, resort? 
Ask the theaters, the taverns, the places of 
debauchery. The tables of surfeit and 
excess have with them displaced the holy 
table ; licentious songs are their sacred 

121 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

hymns ; the theater is their church ; dances 
and shows engage them, instead of instruc- 
tion and prayer. Thus by a disorder which 
cries for vengeance to Heaven, the Holy 
Day is the day of the week most profaned/' 

In 1884, Robert Collyer, the well-known 
Unitarian clergyman, wrote the New York 
Tribune as follows : "I remember when in 
Paris in 1865, counting forty different kinds 
of workingmen busy at their tasks as I 
walked on Sunday morning from my hotel 
to a church not far away. I wondered 
where that would end, and saw the end in 
1 87 1 in the fires that had been kindled by 
the Commune. ,, 

Somewhere between these extremes, 
between the rigor of the Sabbath of Juda- 
ism and the laxity of the Paris Sabbath, 
lies the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's 
Day. It is the (Jewish) Sabbath trans- 
ferred to the first day of the week, liberated 
122 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

from the severities of the Old Covenant, 
mellowed under the Covenant of Grace, 
and vitalized to subserve the necessities of 
the children of the King, who breathe for 
immortality. 

The Moral Law, of which the Sabbath 
is an integral part, touches every point of 
human nature. The first commandment is 
God's statute in regard to monotheism ; 
the second in regard to idolatry, for there 
can be no counterfeits in the Divine King- 
dom ; the third in regard to profanity ; the 
fourth in regard to time ; the fifth in regard 
to the family ; the sixth in regard to life ; 
the seventh in regard to moral purity ; the 
eighth in regard to property ; the ninth in 
regard to truth ; and the tenth in regard to 
covetousness. The New Commandment 
given by the Lord is supplemental, and 
may be termed the Fountain of Brotherly 

Love, that burst forth among the disciples 

123 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

after his Resurrection. If these principles 
are incorporated in our lives, all of our 
relations towards God and man are fulfilled 
and we find the Law of the Lord is per- 
fect. As a part of the Decalogue, the 
Fourth Commandment, which treats of 
human duty in relation to time, is as neces- 
sary and binding and sacred as any other 
commandment, and no man can be perfect 
without remembering the Sabbath to keep 
it holy, under all covenants, as long as the 
cycles of time shall run their rounds. To 
do this intelligently, to understand the 
Moral Law, every commandment of which 
is binding upon Christians in all times and 
places, it is vital for the followers of Christ 
to know that the Sabbath has been trans- 
ferred from Saturday to Sunday, and also 
to learn what modifications the Sabbath 
has undergone in passing from one econ- 
omy to another. 

124 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

The Transferred Sabbath is a day of 
rest, but not a day of idleness and sleep. 
The Fourth Commandment has an outer 
and an inner aspect, a twofold relation to 
man. The outer law of the Sabbath is to 
abstain from ordinary daily labor; the 
inner law of the Sabbath is to keep the 
day holy. On the Sabbath the soul should 
be actively engaged in pursuit of those 
things that pertain to the spiritual life. 
Holiness in the Bible is absolute freedom 
from evil, and all defects of character, 
absolute perfection of life in its higher 
relation to God and man. Under the Old 
Testament, holiness seems to start at the 
surface and penetrate inwards towards the 
heart, which gives ceremonial observance 
a more prominent place in the salvation 
of man. In the New Testament, under 
the quickening influences of the Holy 

Spirit, holiness in man is represented as 

125 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

starting at the center of man's being, and 
working outward towards his acts and 
words. The Christian graces find a lodg- 
ment in the heart, and flow out in a stream 
of reverence towards God and benevolence 
towards man. To keep the Sabbath holy 
is not merely a negative condition of 
abstaining from ordinary labor, and from 
moral evil, but also an active condition of 
soul which flows out in acts of reverence 
and benevolence. Holiness, moral per- 
fection of character, implies moral activity 
or worship, and charitable deeds. To 
keep the Sabbath holy implies an active 
condition of the spiritual powers of man, 
in performing those religious observances 
which put a man in touch with divine 
things, and in an overflow of soul towards 
God the Giver of all good. We might as 
appropriately speak of a perfect fountain, 

out of which flowed no water, as of a per- 

126 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

feet heart that did not flow out in love and 
reverence towards God. 

The first covenant contained promises 
that pertained mainly to the present life, 
such as possessing the Promised Land, the 
increase of numbers, of seed time and 
harvest, of national privileges, of extraor- 
dinary prosperity, including germinally the 
promise of eternal life. 

In the New Covenant, spiritual blessings 
are promised as the principal thing. The 
soul is directed to heaven, the heart is 
cheered with the hope of immortal life and 
the favor of God, and the gate of heaven 
is plainly opened for all believers. As the 
New Covenant in its requirements is more 
spiritual than the Old Covenant, the 
observance of the Transferred Sabbath 
should be more spiritual. The Sabbath is 
not a day for travel in the ordinary accep- 
tation of the term. It should not be given 

127 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

up to amusements and pleasure-seeking. 
Hunting, fishing, pleasure excursions, 
social parties, light reading and worldly 
conversation should be discarded. A per- 
son can take a walk on Sunday afternoon, 
if he will take a Sabbath walk. Christ and 
his disciples walked through the cornfields 
on the Sabbath, and two disciples walked 
to Emmaus on the Sabbath, and Jesus 
drew near and went with them, and 
expounded the Scriptures to them, and 
opened their understanding of sacred 
things. 

Nature is the Universal Temple erected 
and dedicated for worship in all lands, and 
wherever two or three worshipers, under 
the blue vault of heaven, bow their heads 
in true reverence to the Father of All, the 
Incarnated One has promised to be in the 
midst of them. Every cloister of this 

Temple, wherever devout souls retire for 
128 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

meditation and prayer, is filled with the 
Omnipresent One, and his ear is ever 
attentive to all that lisp his praise. In 
these sacred courts are visible manifesta- 
tions of his power and wisdom, his good- 
ness and beauty, that are fitted to awaken 
reverence in all thoughtful souls. How 
the contemplative mind is awed into silence 
by the majesty and power of Him who 
hath heaved the mountains and poured the 
ocean. How the spirits of the sons of 
toil, weary of the battle of life, are soothed 
by the cadence of waterfalls, the sighing 
of the winds among the forests, the moan- 
ing of the ocean, the murmur of insects 
and the songs of birds. In the round of 
the seasons there are manifest and varied 
tokens of the presence of Him who goes 
forth at the appointed season to clothe the 
forest with leaves, to spread the green car- 
pets of the fields, to ornament them with 
9 I2 9 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

flowers, to cause the earth to bring forth 
abundantly the golden harvests, to load 
the orchards with fruits, and to spread in 
its season the white mantle of snow over 
hill and dale, as if to cover up and hide 
from view all the imperfections of the year. 
Every expanding leaf bespeaks his wisdom 
and power, and every wave-washed pebble 
at our feet shows his providential care. 
Undevout must be the soul that cannot 
worship in the Universal Temple, so full 
of the divine presence, on the Transferred 
Sabbath which brings to us all the sweet- 
ness and beauty and gladness of earth, 
since the morning stars sang together, and 
the Lord of Life burst the bars of death 
and came forth from the sepulcher, the 
pledge of immortality. 

All the various offices of religion should 
be performed on the Christian Sabbath. 

This day is specially set apart for men to 
130 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

enter the house of God, and to engage in 
public worship. In the olden time, good 
men whose hearts were stirred with relig- 
ious fervor, entered the sanctuary to pay 
their vows and worship God. On this 
sacred day they read from the Law, the 
Psalms, and the Prophets, in the Syna- 
gogue. In the assembly of his saints they 
praised Him for his mighty acts and uttered 
abundantly the memory of his goodness. 
The psalmist esteemed a day in his courts 
better than a thousand, and they went on 
from strength to strength, every one 
appearing before God. The tabernacles 
of God were amiable to them, and the 
Lord gave them grace and glory. The 
psalmist said he would rather be a door- 
keeper in the house of God than to dwell 
in the tents of wickedness. So delightful 
was the sanctuary that even the swallow 

was envied that found a nesting near the 

131 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

sacred place, where she might lay her 
young. The psalmist declared that his 
"soul longed, yea, even fainted for the 
courts of the Lord ; his heart and his flesh 
cried out for the living God." The Lord 
was a sun to shine upon them, and a shield 
to give them protection. In passing 
through the vale of tears they made it a 
spring, even their tears were converted 
into a blessed fountain. The Sabbath was 
a delight to them, the holy and honorable 
of the Lord. 

Under the New Covenant, the disciples 
continued in fellowship, in prayer and 
in breaking bread every Sabbath Day. 
"When ye come together," the apostle 
says, " every one of you hath a psalm, hath 
a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revela- 
tion, hath an interpretation." And thus in 
the sanctuary, on the Sabbath Day, the 

word of God dwelt in them in all wisdom, 

132 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

and they taught and admonished one 
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual 
songs, with grace in their hearts. They 
prophesied, spoke with other tongues, 
taught the Scriptures, collected alms for the 
needy saints, took hold on God's covenant, 
and kept the Sabbath from polluting it. 

The education of children involves their 
government and instruction, and their 
instruction in divine things finds its appro- 
priate time largely on the Sabbath Day. 
The apostle says : "Fathers, provoke not 
your children to wrath : but bring them up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
These are the olive plants around our 
hearthstones that need the most tender 
care. Under spiritual guidance, " our sons 
may be as plants grown up in their youth ; 
and our daughters may be as corner-stones, 
polished after the similitude of a palace." 

In the family is the fountain of life that 

*33 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

pours forth waters sweet or bitter. As the 
prophet cast a branch into the bitter waters 
of Marah to sweeten them, so the grace 
of God can sweeten this fountain of life. 
The sacred and appropriate time for the 
instruction of children in divine things is 
the Sabbath Day, when everything con- 
spires to foster and make this work effect- 
ive. Youth is the precious time when the 
seeds of divine truth germinate quickly in 
tender hearts, and grow luxuriously with 
April showers. The lambs of the fold 
should be taken to the Great Shepherd, 
who will fold them in his arms and carry 
them in his bosom. We should never for- 
get the blessed words : " Suffer little chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven/' 
The wise man has said with more than 
earthly wisdom : " Train up a child in the 

way he should go ; and when he is old he 

i34 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

will not depart from it." This saying will 
be found strictly true when Christian par- 
ents form moral character in their children 
under wise training with parental love and 
care. Sooner will the Ethiopian change 
his skin, or the leopard his spots, than will 
a child lose his moral character when once 
it is properly formed within him. A child 
may lose his life ; but he seldom loses 
Christian character. Character perpetuates 
itself, and is the most enduring thing with- 
in the realm of time and space. The 
worlds shall be dissolved, but character 
shall endure forevermore. Some one has 
said : " Better turn a wolf loose into the 
street, than to send out a child into the 
world that is not a subject of divine grace." 
What a fountain of blessings to send out 
a son who becomes a Paul, a Wesley, or a 
Moody. 

When the Sabbath comes, there is a sol- 
i35 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

emn pause in the ordinary vocations of 
life, and a holy light breaks over the house- 
hold that seems in a Christian family to be 
very sweet and refreshing. When the 
family gather for morning prayers, it seems 
as if some of the heavenly dew had dis- 
tilled upon the earth. The word of God 
instructs and refreshes the weary soul, and 
the children are taught to hymn his praise. 
Gracious influences steal into tender hearts 
as children study the words and works of 
God. The family altar is a sacred place 
where holy fire burns with a flame that 
consumes unholy thoughts and sinful 
desires. Personified wisdom has said : "I 
love them that love me ; and those that 
seek me early shall find me," 

The young have received public religious 
instruction, more or less, from very early 
times. In patriarchal days, this instruction 

was given in the family, and the father was 
136 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

the teacher and priest. From Samuel to 
Elijah, there were schools of the prophets. 
Jehoshaphat sent out a royal commissioner 
to reestablish religious instruction, and 
there was a similar movement in the days 
of Josiah. Ezra gathered together the 
people with the children during the feast 
of tabernacles, and read the laws of Moses 
to them, and the people wept while he 
instructed them in righteousness. The 
Mishna says: "At five years of age let 
children begin the Scripture, at ten the 
Mishna, and at thirteen let them be sub- 
jects of the law." When we are told that 
" Paul was brought up at the feet of Gam- 
aliel/ y it implies the posture assumed by 
Jewish youth while they received instruc- 
tion. The catechetical classes were in- 
tended to prepare new converts to become 
members of synagogues. 

Robert Raikes may justly be considered 
i37 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

as the founder of modern Sabbath-schools. 
As millions of children study the Bible in 
Sabbath-schools, what a wave of light like 
the light of the sun encircles the earth on 
the Transferred Sabbath. 

The Sabbath is a day that is appropriate 
for performing works of necessity, and 
works of mercy. The law of necessity 
should not receive too liberal an interpre- 
tation, but the demands of intelligent free 
moral agents widen with their progressive 
development. Under the old economy the 
restriction of a Sabbath Day's journey did 
not subtract from the religious freedom or 
usefulness of a Jew. But in these days of 
quick transit such a restriction would ser- 
iously cripple active and faithful workers 
in many a missionary field. Missionaries 
at home and abroad are sometimes com- 
pelled to serve on the same Sabbath sev- 
eral churches widely separated to carry the 

138 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

Gospel to hungry souls. Time and space 
under the liberty of the New Covenant are 
not fetters to hinder one from serving the 
Master. The apostle says: "The letter 
killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The 
Transferred Sabbath is a day of Christian 
liberty on which Christians should worship 
and serve the risen Lord. Works of 
mercy however should receive a liberal 
interpretation, for Christ delighted in heal- 
ing and showing mercy to his children on 
the Sabbath Day, and they should imitate 
their Lord and Master. No limits have 
ever been established under any covenant 
to the works of love and mercy on the 
Sabbath Day. The visitation of the sick 
and needy is appropriate for the Sabbath 
Day, if we carry to them something that 
makes them better in body and in soul. 
Thrice precious are those gifts that also 

enrich the soul. 

139 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

From the earliest times, under all cove- 
nants, the Sabbath has been the time di- 
vinely appointed for the children of God to 
receive spiritual blessings. It is the day 
designated by Jehovah for holy convoca- 
tions. On this day the cloud of the divine 
presence rests upon the sanctuary. It is 
the day when God has promised to be gra- 
cious, to send forth His holy spirit, and 
forgive the sins of His people. It is the 
divinely appointed day of salvation. On 
this day from the sacred oracles, from 
the ordinances and sacraments, from the 
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and from 
the presence of the Redeemer, believers 
have derived more spiritual life than from 
all the other days of the week. This day 
was specially blessed during the tabernacle 
and temple service. Nehemiah saw some 
treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, 

bringing sheaves, and engaged in other 

140 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

usual vocations, and he testified against 
them. Men of Tyre also brought fish 
and ware and sold them in Jerusalem on 
the Sabbath, and Nehemiah contended with 
the nobles of Judah in regard to it. On 
the day of Pentecost, the Transferred 
Sabbath, the Holy Spirit was poured out 
without measure, and three thousand were 
converted and added to the church. On 
the Sabbath Day we have the promise of 
the continued outpouring of the Holy 
Spirit. Christ taught on the Sabbath in 
the synagogue and in the temple, and the 
inspired apostles imitated the example of 
their Lord and Master. 

God has promised special rewards to 
those who keep the Sabbath. The Great 
Prophet has said: " Blessed is the man 
that doeth this, and the son of man that 
layeth hold on it ; that keepeth the Sab- 
bath from polluting it, and keepeth his 

141 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

hand from doing any evil." "Also the 
sons of the stranger, that join themselves 
to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the 
name of the Lord, to be his servants, every 
one that keepth the Sabbath from pollut- 
ing it, and taketh hold of my covenant. 
Even them will I bring to my holy mount- 
ain, and make them joyful in my house of 
prayer : their burnt-offerings and their sac- 
rifices shall be accepted upon mine altar ; 
for my house shall be called a house of 
prayer for all people." "If thou turn 
away thy foot from the Sabbath, from 
doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and 
call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the 
Lord, honorable ; and shalt honor him, not 
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine 
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own 
words." "Then shalt thou delight thyself 
in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to 

ride upon the high places of the earth, and 

142 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy 
father : for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it." 

The blessing of God has been too 
evident, long-continued and uniform to 
doubt that the Sabbath is the favorable 
time for receiving the richest blessings of 
divine grace that descend on holy convo- 
cations. On this day millions have been 
born into the kingdom of God, and made 
joyful in his house. If this holy day should 
be neglected, the temples of God would be 
deserted in the world, the good news of 
salvation would not be proclaimed to men, 
religion would decay, and morals fade 
away, the progress of civilization would be 
stayed, mankind would degenerate into 
ignorance and crime, and moral darkness 
would brood over the world. If man's 
relation to time for his higher development 

should cease, his relation to space as a 

143 



THE SABBATH TRANSFERRED 

self-conscious, free moral agent would be 
worthless, and he would soon cease to be 
the crown and glory of this lower world. 

In a most important sense the Trans- 
ferred Sabbath is the River of God that is 
full of water, for the waters of other rivers 
fail. This mighty, ever-flowing river finds 
its springs near the sources of time, and 
flows continuously through the wilderness 
of this world washing all lands. It flows 
from beneath the divine throne, and bears 
on its bosom into this lower world the 
most precious gifts of God. Its mighty 
increasing current sweeps on towards those 
golden days seen in visions by the prophets 
of old, of the New Heavens and New 
Earth, when "the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover 
the sea." "In those days shall the right- 
eous flourish'' and "the mountains shall 

bring peace to the people, and the little hills 

144 



THE TRANSFERRED SABBATH 

by righteousness/ ' The Great Prophet, in 
speaking of those days, says: " Instead 
of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and 
instead of the brier shall come up the 
myrtle tree : and it shall be to the Lord 
for a name, for an everlasting sign that 
shall not be cut off." The Transferred 
Sabbath is the Evangel of Peace to all 
people, for the time will come when all 
nations shall remember it to keep it holy, 
and their men " shall learn war no more " 
but " they shall beat their swords into plow- 
shares, and their spears into pruning- 
hooks." 



10 145 



INDEX AND ANALYSIS 

Chapter I 
The Sabbath a Movable Institution 

God may be worshiped at all times and in all places, 21. 

Finite man needs special times for rest and worship, 21. 

Difference between secular and holy time, 22. 

The Sabbath can be placed on and taken off from a secular 
day, 23. 

The Sabbath, a Divine Institution, part of the Moral Law, 23. 

The Sabbath, as an Institution, may be transferred from one 
secular day to another, 23. 

The Sabbath not identical with Saturday, 24. 

Division of the week, in reference to holy and secular time, 25. 

The Sabbath cannot be abolished except by divine authority, 26. 

Transfer of the Sabbath preserves the integrity of the Institu- 
tion, 26. 

Cartographical illustration of the transfer of the Sabbath, fac- 
ing 27. 

Secular days fixed as names of time for astronomical move- 
ments, 27. 

The day considered as a unit of time, 27. 

The week as related to the unit of time, 28. 

Blessing the seventh day equivalent to blessing the Sabbath, 28. 

The Sabbath not needed to make the secular week complete, 29. 

The Sabbath instituted at the end of creation to meet the neces- 
sities of man, 30. 

147 



INDEX AND ANALYSIS 

The Sabbath has two limitations, 3 1 . 

The original Sabbath gave man every evidence of the divine 

attributes, 32. 
The septenary order of the Sabbath founded in the constitution 

of man, 33. 
Other time Institutions, 33. 
The Moral Law has never been abolished, 34. 
Relation of Judaism to Christianity, 35. 
Only one sun in the solar system, 35. 
Only one Sabbath in the Moral Law, 35. 
The transfer of the Sabbath makes the Jewish Sabbath and 

Christian Sabbath identical, 36. 



Chapter II 

Evidence from the New Testament of the Transfer 
of the Sabbath 

Examination of passages of Scripture : 

Mat. 28: 1, 37. 

Mark 16 : 1-2, 41. 

Luke 23: 55 sea., 43. 

John 20 : I ; 20 : 19, 44. 

Acts 13 : 42 sea., 45. 

Acts 20 : 7, 47. 

I Cor. 16:2, 47. 

Col. 2: 16, 48. 

Rev. I : 10, 49. 
Human opinions change slowly, 49. 
Excellency of King James' Translation, 50. 
New Versions will be needed, 51. 
Revelation yields men more truth from age to age, 51. 
148 



INDEX AND ANALYSIS 

Christians beginning to accept the Transfer, 53. 

Different views held in regard to the Sabbath, 54. 

Significance of the double crappaTUiv occurring in connection with 

the Resurrection, 57. 
The Sabbath transferred from Saturday to Sunday, 57* 
Belief in transfer not hedged up by Philology, 58. 
Sometimes Christians must walk as philosophers, 58. 
Only one deer in the park, 59. 



Chapter III 

Prophecies Foreshadowing the Transfer of the 
Sabbath 

Transfer of the Sabbath a fulfillment of prophecy, 60. 

Isaiah predicts the transfer, 60. 

Important changes take place at the Resurrection, 61. 

Geological history a periodical unfolding from rudimentary to 

higher forms of life, 63. 
Transition from Jewish to Christian economy dynamic, 63. 
Transfer of the Sabbath reasonable, 64. 
Testimony of Philip Schaff, the Church Historian, 65. 
The Psalmist prophecies the transfer, 66. 
The Risen Lord recognizes the transfer, 68. 
No Christian can observe the Sabbath on the seventh day with 

joy, 69. 
The Sabbath the same Institution under all covenants, 70. 
The Sabbath more glorious under the New Covenant, 71. 
The Sabbath the same Institution observed by Patriarchs, 

Prophets and Disciples, 72. 
This River of God flows with increasing volume and power, 75. 

149 



INDEX AND ANALYSIS 

Chapter IV 
Practice of Early Christians 

The Transferred Sabbath a perpetual memorial of the crowning 

miracle of the Resurrection, 76. 
Why Christ did not speak of the transfer, 79. 
The example of inspired men conclusive evidence, 79. 
Peaceful transfer of the Sabbath in the face of Jewish preju- 
dices, 80. 
Testimony of Philip Schaff, 81. 

Christ meets with his disciples on the Lord' s Day, 83. 
Paul observes the Transferred Sabbath at Troas, 84. 
Testimony of the Christian Fathers : 

Justin Martyr, 85. 

Barnabas, 88. 

"Teaching of the Apostles," 88. 

Tertullian, 88. 

Dionysius, 88. 

Irenseus, 89. 

Clement, of Alexandria, 91. 

Origen, 92. 

Anatolius, 92. 

Eusebius, 93. 

Petavius, 94. 
Sunday legislation by Constantine, 96. 
Significance of <raj8j3aTio7x6?, 97. 
Pentecost the divine seal of the transfer, 97. 
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Lord' s Day evidence of 

the divine approval, 98. 
God is a jealous God and will not give his honor to another, 99. 
The heavenly dew falls on worshiping assemblies on the Lord's 

Day for twenty centuries, 100. 



INDEX AND ANALYSIS 

Chapter V 
The Transferred or Christian Sabbath 

Transfer of the Sabbath in harmony with the law of evolu- 
tion, IOI. 

Evolution the general law of development, ioi. 

The Nebular Hypothesis of La Place, 1 02. 

The law of progress apparent in Revelation, 105. 

Economies of grace progressive, 109. 

The Sabbath naturally affected by the law of evolution, 1 10. 

Sabbath flexible to meet the exigencies of historical develop- 
ment, in. 

Christ Lord of the Sabbath Day, 112. 

Rigor of Sabbath observance disappears under the New Cove- 
nant, 112. 

Micrological casuistry of the Jews, 113. 

The Sabbath was made for man, 115. 

The Sabbath of Paris and continental Europe, 116. 

The Transferred Sabbath a day of religious liberty, 116. 

Manner of observing the Christian Sabbath, 116. 

The Transferred Sabbath partakes of the spirit of the New 
Covenant, 122. 

Nature the Universal Temple of Worship, 128. 

All religious observances appropriate for the Sabbath Day, 130. 

Children should be instructed in divine things on the Sab- 
bath, 133. 

Blessings of Sabbath-schools, 137. 

Works of Necessity and Works of Mercy, 138. 

The day for Holy Convocations, 140. 

Rewards for keeping the Sabbath, 141. 

The New Heavens and the New Earth, 143. 

The Transferred Sabbath is the River of God, 144. 

J 5i 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
{724)779-2111 



5///P 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 625 207 2 § 



